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News Corp reports claim Football Australia is in talks with their Qatari counterparts to secure a venue for the September 2 clash with confirmation expected in the coming days that the match will take place in Doha.
The Socceroos were forced to find a new venue for the opening clash of the third round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup after the Australian government refused to give players an officials quarantine exemptions ahead of the fixture.
The match was originally scheduled to take place at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney.
It has been nearly two years since the Socceroos last played a fixture in Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Football Australia is still hopeful qualifiers against Oman and Saudi Arabia in October and November will go ahead on home soil.
There is also drama surrounding the Socceroos qualifier against Vietnam in Hanoi on September 7 with the match to be played behind closed doors.
The Vietnamese government made the call to shut the doors to the My Dinh Stadium for fans as the country struggles to handle a wave of COVID-19 cases.
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Despite this, Vietnamese media report that neither team nor their officials will need to quarantine prior to the match.
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold will announce his squad for the matches against China and Vietnam next week.
Arnold said he is excited to get the Socceroos World Cup qualification mission off to a strong start wherever the games take place.
“I can’t wait to get them back together in the camp. Nothing worries me one bit about playing away from home,” he said.
“We’ve got a good number of very good players and I’m very positive about what lies ahead.
“I’ll be going into those two games very positive. I expect six points from the first two games, and then we’re on our journey, on our way.”
