On October 15, AFC confirmed that China has withdrawn from hosting the 2022 U23 Asian Cup Finals due to conflicts over tournament schedules, completion progress of stadiums for other international events as well as being heavily affected by the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.
At the 2020 U23 Asian Cup Finals held in Thailand, U23 China ended their journey with three losses, no points and no goals scored. Chinese football is extending its disappointing streak as they have not reached the quarter-finals once.
The 2022 U23 Asian Cup finals are considered an opportunity for U22 China to improve their performance when playing at home. However, they have reluctantly had to withdraw from hosting.
AFC is restarting the plan to invite host countries to organize the 2022 and 2024 U23 Asian Cup Finals. Meanwhile, Vietnam will be the host country for a group at the 2022 U23 Asian Qualifiers scheduled to be held in October 2021.
The AFC has also announced that the 2020 AFC Futsal Championship Finals will not take place in Kuwait in early December as scheduled.
This decision was made by the AFC after discussing with the Kuwait Football Federation and related parties, as well as careful consideration of ensuring the health safety of the participants in the tournament in the face of the recent increase in COVID-19 infections in Kuwait. This is the 4th time the continental futsal tournament has been postponed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the 2020 Asian Futsal Championship Finals, the Vietnam futsal team was in Group A with Turkmenistan, Oman and Tajikistan. In order to realize the goal of winning a ticket to the FIFA Futsal World Cup Finals, the team has developed a very careful preparation plan with a quality training trip in Spain in February 2020.
Although the AFC later announced the postponement of the Final Round due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the training trip in Spain is considered very necessary for the players to improve their competitiveness at the international level.
Mr. Tran Anh Tu - Standing Member of the Executive Committee, Head of the VFF Futsal Committee said that when the Final Round was determined to be held in Kuwait next December, the team also planned to have another training session abroad after the end of the 2020 HDBank National Championship futsal tournament.
However, with the latest decision of the AFC on the plan to organize the 2020 Asian Futsal Championship Finals moved to 2021, the team will have calculations to adjust accordingly.
