New schedule unveiled for domestic leagues and National Cup
VOV.VN - The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and the Vietnam Professional Football JSC (VPF) have agreed to resume the V.League 1 season in March and April, whilst both the V.League 2 and National Cup will also start after being delayed for the COVID-19 fight.
The V.League 1 season will return on either March 13 or March 19 before concluding on September 19.
Furthermore, the V.League 2 will kick off on March 20 and finish on September 18. At the end of the season, a play-off match will be held between the second-place team of the V.League 2 and the bottom team in the V.League 1, with the loser playing in the V.League 2 in the 2022 season.
The National Cup will also launch its qualifying round on April 23. With the tournament scheduled to end on September 30, this will allow the national U22 team plenty of time to prepare for qualifiers for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship and the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. In addition, the senior team will be preparing for qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in the Asian region and the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup.
The national team will therefore participate in a one-week training camp from May 22 to May 29 before going on to compete in the remaining qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.
It is also possible that the Vietnamese team will hold an additional training camp between April 21 and May 7 due to a break in the V.League 1 season to allow Viettel FC to compete in the group stages of the AFC Champions League.
At present, Vietnam are currently leading Group G with 11 points, followed by Malaysia with nine points, Thailand with eight points, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with six points, and Indonesia who are bottom with zero points.
The national team are scheduled to compete in three matches as part of the current qualifying process, with ties against Indonesia on June 7, Malaysia on June 11, and the UAE on June 15.
