The difficult situation is not only for any country

LS V.League is postponed after 2 rounds. Photo: Minh Hoang.

Many tournaments are facing a difficult situation, can you describe the recent situation and the opinion of AFC Competition Committee about this situation?

Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan: As we have known, due to the fast-changing situation of Covid-19, there are many fields of society are affected in which football. AFC had the emergency meetings with the representatives of AFF, EAFF, WAFF, CFFA to find out the methods to adjust the schedule of the events. At the latest meeting with FIFA, AFC decided to postpone all the matches of World Cup 2022 Asia Qualifier  in March and June

Due to the recent situation of Covid-19 development, AFC will have the updated plan for the tournament. The opinion of FIFA and AFC is ensuring safety and health for the people who join in the matches as well as cooperate with WHO and federations to ensure the best quality of the prevention. If the matches have to be postponed or play without spectator until the Covid-19 disappears, we need to accept.

After decided to postpone the matches of World Cup 2022 in March and June, do FIFA and AFC think about the busy schedule at the end of the year?

Until now, FIFA and AFC haven’t had any decision about the new schedule. However, according to the principle, the matches of the World Cup 2022 Qualifier need to follow the FIFA International Calendar and FIFA days. This is the competition time which was set by FIFA at the beginning of the year.

This year, the FIFA days are the end of March, early of June, early of September, early of October, and middle of November. Therefore, the matches of the World Cup Qualifier will be delayed to early September, October, and November. This is an important and necessary condition because only in the FIFA days, the players can join the national team instead of clubs. This adjustment also increases competition time at the end of the year. However, this is the common issue of every federation. We need to act in all situations to ensure the best result.

Vietnam National Team may comes back in June 2020

There is information that the AFF Cup 2020 will be postponed or U23 National Team will play instead of the national team, does VFF plan about that?

Because of Covid-19, we have a very busy schedule at the end of the year. Besides the matches of the World Cup 2022 Qualifier, we also join the AFF Cup 2020. This tournament will kick-off at the end of November so we have to plan the calendar of the national tournaments to ensure the team will have enough preparation time.

Until now, we haven’t received any information about the changing time of AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 or the plan allows the U23 team to join the tournament instead of the national team. This is the most precious tournament for the national teams in ASEAN. Hence, I think AFF and the member associations will need to discuss and find out the best way to ensure the organization of the tournament.

VFF Permanent Vice Precident Tran Quoc Tuan and FIFA President Gianni Infantino

What do VFF and Head coach Park Hang-seo plan from now to the end of the year?

Before having the postpone information from AFC, VFF had an adjustment about the national tournaments. About the recent tournaments, the method to ensure health and avoid Covid-19 are doing as the guide of the Medical Department. However, until now, all the national tournaments are delaying due to Covid-19 development.

This is the uncontrolled thing, VFF and VPF hope that the spectators, clubs, and teams will cooperate to handle the Covid-19. About the national teams, VFF will have the adjustments to follow the new schedule of FIFA and AFC.

Thanks.