One of these dates for is for Match Day 1 of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 second-round qualifiers.

The request was made by letter to FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke.

AFC has in the past asked for official FIFA Match Date status for AFC Asian Cup qualifiers but FIFA had turned down these requests.

“We would appreciate it if FIFA could kindly approve the above dates as this would assist with the implementation of AFC’s principle of playing qualification matches of major National Team competitions on Official FIFA Match Dates,” AFC wrote in the letter.

The requested dates are as follows:

9 June, 2012

2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Round 4, Match Day 1

13 June, 2012

2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Round 4, Match Day 2

2 February, 2013

AFC Asian Cup 2015 Qualifiers, Round 2, Match Day 1

4 June, 2013

2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Round 4, Match Day 8

18 June, 2013

2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Round 4, Match Day 10

Having matches on Official FIFA Match Dates means clubs are obligated to release players for national team duty.

From an Asian perspective, this is particularly important for AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, for which European clubs are often reluctant to release Asian players.

Australia is the most notable country to be affected by the inability to call up players for AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.