Hoàng Anh Gia Lai will be at the top of the V.League 1 when games resume in February. — Photo baogialai.com.vn

Football

HÀ NỘI  The Việt Nam Football Federation (VFF) has approved the Việt Nam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF)'s plan to postpone the V. League 1 2021 until February, 2022.

The remaining matches from the 13th game of the V.League 1 will be held on February 12 next year.

The second stage of the league will take place between February 16 and March 12, 2022, with all teams divided into groups A and B.

The format of the tournament also has an adjustment when only one team will be relegated from V.League 1 to V.League 2, without a play-off match. In the phase two, the top six teams compete for the championship, and the bottom eight teams will fight to avoid relegation.

Meanwhile, the V.League 2 will resume its seventh round of matches starting from November 20 this year. There is one direct promotion and 1 relegation.

The National Cup 2021 is also set to restart on January 17, 2022, with the competition at the quarter-final stage.

The new schedule will be implemented to fit in with the fixtures of the national squad ahead of their games in the third round of Asian qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2020 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup.

Việt Nam have been drawn in Group B of the final World Cup qualifying round, alongside Japan, Saudi Arabia, Australia, China, and Oman.

During the next round of World Cup qualifiers the team will begin their campaign with an away match against Saudi Arabia on September 2, with their final qualifying match against Japan on March 29, 2022.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 has been postponed until December 5.

Because of the V.League 1’s postponement, coach Ljupko Petrovic of Thanh Hóa took the initiative to request his salary reduction.

A leader of Thanh Hóa Club told zingnews.vn: "We were really surprised by coach Petrovic's suggestion. When we knew that V.League 1 officially had to be suspended for a few months, the team's leaders and the coaching board discussed the plan for the next time, suddenly, Petrovic proposed his salary reduction to help the team financially."

Before that, Thanh Hóa hadn’t made any decision regarding the salary reduction of team members. Petrovic's suggestion comes from the fact that the 74-year-old coach feels the general difficult situation of the team when the tournament must last for many months.  VNS