Việt Nam national team train under the watchful eye of coach Park Hang-seo. — Photo thethao247.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese national football team won’t play a competitive World Cup qualifying match until next year at the earliest.

Football’s governing body, FIFA, has announced a series of changes relating to the schedules of national teams of both men and women.

As it stands, matches due to take place for the World Cup qualifying rounds during the first week of September have been put back until the end of January 2021.

Việt Nam currently top Group G in the second qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup. Việt Nam have three more matches against Malaysia, Indonesia and the UAE.

If Việt Nam qualifies for the next group stages, they will play around 20 more games next year, including matches in the AFF Cup 2020 which has been moved to April 2021.

According to the meeting between the Việt Nam Football Federation and coach Park Hang-seo, the South Korean coach asked to allow Việt Nam team to meet after the end of the V.League 1 2020.

Previously, the August gathering of the Vietnamese team was stopped after FIFA and AFC cancelled all remaining matches of the year. — VNS