FIFA Postpones FIFAe Finals in Jeddah After Japan and Brazil Withdraw

FIFA and the Saudi Esports Federation have postponed the FIFAe Finals 2026, calling off football’s national-team esports championship a day before the first match was due to be played in Jeddah, without naming a new date or venue.

According to the joint statement, posted at midnight local time on Thursday, the decision “follows an assessment of recent developments in the region and their impact on the logistical arrangements required to stage the tournament.” FIFA thanked the kingdom and the federation for their support and cooperation, “building on Saudi Arabia’s successful hosting of previous editions of the tournament,” and said further announcements would be “communicated in due course.”

The statement does not mention security. The two national federations that withdrew before it did.

The Japan Football Association said on Oct. 10 that it would not send its team “following a comprehensive assessment of the current situation in the host country and the available information regarding safety and security.” Brazil’s CBF cancelled the eSeleção’s participation later that evening, citing escalating regional tensions and, in particular, the risks posed by the airspace and airports the delegation would have had to pass through.

Japan’s withdrawal also removed the home federation of Konami, whose eFootball supplies two of the event’s three competitions.

Both withdrawals came on the day of a Houthi strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport that killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 300, Reuters reported. It was the third Houthi attack on the airport that week, and the group had declared Saudi airspace a zone of military operations, Al Jazeera reported. The Six Kings Slam tennis exhibition has since moved from October to December, and the Asian Football Confederation said it was open to delaying the Asian Cup, due to start in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar on Jan. 7, until 2028.

Konami’s own notice to players attributed the postponement to “various circumstances.”

FIFA had billed this year’s qualifying as record-breaking. According to FIFA’s Sept. 1 announcement, more than 120 nations entered, competing through five in-person continental championships in Malaysia, Brazil, Morocco, Mexico and Portugal. Twelve national teams qualified for each of the console and mobile eFootball competitions and 16 for Rocket League, all due at the Abadi Al Johar Arena from Oct. 16 to 25. That announcement did not include a 2026 prize pool. The 2025 edition in Riyadh carried a $450,000 prize pool, according to FIFA.

The postponement makes the FIFAe Finals the third major international esports event Saudi Arabia was due to host this year to be moved or delayed.

The Esports Foundation moved the 2026 Esports World Cup from Riyadh to Paris in May, then, as previously reported by The Esports Advocate, postponed the inaugural Esports Nations Cup from November 2026 to November 2027 after most of its qualifying had already run, while stating that “Saudi Arabia remains fully capable of hosting events.”

FIFA has followed the second route rather than the first. Relocating a club tournament preserves the event; postponing a national-team showcase preserves the host. The choice carries weight because the current arrangement is time-limited: in a July 2025 announcement, FIFA and the Saudi Esports Federation confirmed the finals for 2025 and 2026, and Konami’s renewal with FIFA, as previously reported by The Esports Advocate, likewise covered those two years.

Still unknown are the new dates, whether the event will remain in Jeddah or in Saudi Arabia at all, whether 2026 qualification results carry over, who carries the travel and venue costs already incurred, whether Japan and Brazil can return if the event is rescheduled, and whether the hosting and publisher agreements extend if the finals slip into 2027.

The immediate outcome is that FIFA will not crown its three world champions in October. The larger question is whether a football esports calendar built around a single Saudi host can produce a 2026 champion at all, or whether FIFA, like the Esports Foundation, will end up carrying this year’s competition into the next.