Teenage team eyes AFC challenge

Vietnam 's U-16 football team will be going for broke to qualify for
the quarter-finals at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U16
Championship in Tashkent , Uzbekistan , from October 24 to November
7.

Team coach Hoang Van Phuc said Vietnam will
face tough opposition in Group C against Japan , Australia and East
Timor .

The championship will see 16 teams compete in four groups with the top teams qualifying for the semi-finals.

The four semi-finalists will also compete at the FIFA U-17 World Cup next year.

"It's a hard job for us, but then nothing is impossible in football.
I've told our players to work hard in preparation for the championship,"
said Phuc.

"The team is the strongest ever squad
that we've recruited from local youth training centres. All the players
are ready to fight for the AFC championship," he said.

Last week, his U-16 squad edged China 1-0 to win the ASEAN Football Federation Championship in Indonesia .

Phuc, who is coach of Hanoi T&T's youth team, said six key players
including playmaker Dang Anh Tuan, Nguyen Xuan Nam , goalie Nguyen
Son Hai and Huynh Tan Tai will be eligible to play in the national
premier league in the next three years.

He added the teenagers need more practise with the national team in order to improve their skills tactically and mentally.

The team received a cash-bonus of 330 million VND (17,000 USD) from
the Vietnam Football Federation and sponsors at an awards ceremony in
Hanoi on October 5.

"The team's success was a sign
of the progress of Vietnam 's youth training programme. We are proud
of our youngsters and their glorious victory for Vietnamese football,"
said deputy head of the National Sports Administration, Pham Van Tuan.

The U-16 team are currently in training at the Vietnam Football Federation's Youth Centre in Hanoi./.

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Palestinian diplomat wins highest prize of Hanoi contest

Palestinian Ambassador Saadi Salama has won the exceptional prize at the
2009-2010 international contest on Thang Long-Hanoi called “ Hanoi
-Your Destination.”

Addressing the awards
ceremony, held in Hanoi on October 7, the Deputy Chairwoman of the
municipal People’s Committee and Head of the contest’s Steering
Committee, Ngo Thi Thanh Hang said that the contest has contributed a
great deal to help Hanoi become familiar to international friends.

It has also increased the number of people who love Hanoi , a city
of peace, with national and international cultural heritages and a safe
and friendly destination for international visitors, said Hang.

Ambassador Salama, who used to study and work in Vietnam in the
1980s, said he felt lucky to return to work in Hanoi on the occasion
of the city’s millennium birthday.

The contest gave him a chance to express his love of Hanoi where he considers his second homeland.

“I hope that there will be more contests about the country’s
traditional culture to make international friends understanding your
beautiful capital more,” he said.

Jointly held
by the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organisations and the National Steering
Committee for Thang Long-Hanoi thousand year anniversary, the contest
has attracted thousands of people from many countries around the world
since 2000.

This year’s competition received
1,789 entries in six languages including Chinese, Vietnamese, English,
French, Russian and Spanish.

At the awards
ceremony, the organising board also presented one first, five second and
10 third prizes to individuals and one first and two second prizes for
groups./.

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Singapore, two Koreas to join football’s VFF Cup

Vietnamese footballers lift up the trophy of the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup after defeating Thailand 3-2 on aggregate

Photo: Si Huyen

Singapore, North Korea and South Korea have confirmed their participation in the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Cup which will be organized in Hanoi from November 2-6, according to VFF general secretary Tran Quoc Tuan.

The four-team event -- together with hosts, Vietnam’s national football team -- serves as a training ground to prepare for the Southeast Asian (AFF) Suzuki Cup co-hosted by Vietnam and Indonesia in December.

The North Koreans will send their senior national team including some internationals who played at the World Cup Finals in South Africa last June while the South Koreans are sending their Olympic team, Tuan said on Tuesday.

At the AFF Suzuki Cup, Vietnam, as the defending champions, are in group B with Singapore and Myanmar, while three other strong regional teams Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia are in group A.

Five low-ranking teams in the region Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Brunei and Timor Leste are set to compete in the pre-qualifiers in Laos from October 16-24 to pick out two best candidates for admission to the two groups.

In the AFF Suzuki Cup 2008, Vietnam defeated Thailand 3-2 on aggregate to clinch the title.

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Qatar unveils 'island' World Cup stadium

The CEO of the Qatar 2022 Bid Committee Hassan Al Thawadi presents new official ambassador Zinedine Zidane with a personalized shirt in Doha

Photo: Reuters

Qatar unveiled its ultra-modern Lusail Stadium on Wednesday which would host the opening match and World Cup final in 2022 if its bid to stage the tournament wins FIFA's approval in December.

The air-conditioned stadium, which would have a capacity of 86,000, would take four years to build, would expected to be completed by 2019 and would also be surrounded by water. If Qatar loses its bid, the ground will not be built.

Bid CEO chairman Hassan Al-Thawadi told Reuters at the Leaders in Football conference that with eight weeks to go before FIFA make their decision, he was optimistic that Qatar could stage the first World Cup in the Middle East.

Qatar's candidature received some criticism from FIFA's inspection team last month when Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the head of the FIFA delegation, said that the country's small size, rather than the summer temperatures that can soar to above 50 degrees Celsius, could cause logistical problems.

Qatar would become the smallest host nation to stage the finals since Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930 if it won FIFA's approval.

However, Al Thawadi, speaking to Reuters in a private room at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground, said his team had responded to the inspection team's observations.

"If you look at their comments, they did not refer to the weather and for us that was a great, great success. A lot of people thought that our Achilles heel was the weather, but we have proved with our air-conditioned technology, we can overcome that.

"Regarding some of their comments regarding logistics and so on -- we are proposing a unique and innovative concept -- a compact World Cup (because of the size of the country).”

"Whenever you are pioneering a new concept it requires time for people to understand it,” he added. “There will be skeptics, and they are right to be skeptical, but we think although those concerns might be valid, we are able to overcome them."

The Lusail Stadium completes the line-up of the 12 stadiums Qatar would use in 2022 and would incorporate the air-conditioning technology the country has pioneered to make their stadiums more comfortable.

Qatar is one of four bids for the 2022 finals along with Australia, South Korea and Japan. They are spending US$4 billion dollars building nine new stadiums and renovating three others.

Due to the format of the FIFA bidding process, the five bids trying to host the 2018 finals are also going for 2022 -- in theory at least -- with England, Russia, the United States and joint bids from Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands in contention.

All bidding nations presented their candidatures before delegates at the conference, apart from Australia.

The bidding war for the World Cup is beginning to intensify with FIFA president Sepp Blatter planning to visit British Prime Minister David Cameron in London next week.

FIFA will announce which countries will stage each event in Zurich on December 2.

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Liverpool agree sale but legal battle looms

Liverpool fans cheer ahead of their Champions League semifinal, first leg soccer match against Chelsea at Anfield in Liverpool in this April 22, 2008 file photo

Photo: Reuters

Liverpool's board has agreed to sell the club to the owners of baseball's Boston Red Sox but the fate of England's most successful soccer team could yet be decided in court as an ownership dispute rages on.

The Premier League club said on Wednesday they had accepted a 300 million pounds (US$477.6 million) offer from New England Sports Ventures (NESV) but the deal is being complicated because they are facing a legal challenge from their current owners.

Americans Tom Hicks and George Gillett sought on Tuesday to replace two members of the five-man board with their own people in a final bid to retain control.

Hicks and Gillett also confirmed their commitment to selling Liverpool but said the current offer "dramatically" undervalued the club.

"The board has been legally reconstituted and the new board does not approve of this proposed transaction," a spokesman for the owners said.

The proposed deal's price tag of $477.6 million includes $317.8 million in writing down all acquisition debt and taking on additional working capital debts and other liabilities.

The club's American owners would also not have been happy to hear that a sale to NESV has the support of Liverpool's major creditors Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), according to a source familiar with the situation.

Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton said he was disappointed the current owners had "tried everything to prevent the deal from happening" but added the potential new owners were the best people for the job.

An NESV statement said it wanted to "stabilize the club and ultimately return Liverpool FC to its rightful place in English and European football, successfully competing for and winning trophies."

Unpopular owners

Hicks and Gillett bought the Merseyside club in February 2007 for $347.9 million and have been unpopular with fans for burdening it with debt, leaving little money for transfers.

Fans have held many protests calling for their departure, blaming the club's worst start to a season for more than half a century on a lack of new players, but they still struck a note of caution.

"We've heard all these promises before and it amounted to very little," James McKenna, a representative of the Spirit of Shankly supporters group, told Reuters.

Broughton sought to allay such fears, saying NESV wanted to create a 60,000-seater stadium in a "short timetable" -- be it a new ground or an expansion of Anfield -- and pointed to their track record with the Red Sox.

"NESV's philosophy is all about winning and they have fully demonstrated that at Red Sox," he said, referring to the two World Series the team won in 2004 and 2007 after an 86-year wait.

The first title came two years after the takeover by NESV, headed by multi-millionaire John W. Henry.

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Viet Nam prepares to host women's world champs

Viet Nam have begun preparations to apply to host the World Women's U-20 Football Championship in 2012.

The National Sports Administration has compiled an estimate of the costs of the organising, improving infrastructure, ensuring security and health care, broadcasting and other preparations in the four venues that FIFA has chosen.

According to FIFA officials, Viet Nam is a potential candidate to host the event, but apart from My Dinh National Stadium, the three remaining venues – Lach Tray in Hai Phong, Thong Nhat in HCM City and Pleiku in Pleiku city – must be improved.

The tournament is a biannual event featuring the top 16 teams internationally. If the country is selected as host, it will prove a good opportunity to promote the image of Viet Nam abroad. It would also act as important experience in preparing for future major events.

Nguyen receives sought international chess title

Pham Le Thao Nguyen has been recognised as a Women's International Grand Master (IGM) thanks to her great result at the Khanty-Mansiysk's Chess Olympiad that finished on Monday.

Nguyen scored 8.5 points after 10 matches, ranking third in the women's table 2, behind Nadezhda Kosintseva of Russia 1 and Ju Wenjun of China.

Apart from a US$2,800 bonus, the FIDE decided to award her the title without needing the third standard that Nguyen has not attained yet.

Viet Nam is currently home to three other women IGMs, Nguyen Thi Thanh An, Hoang Thi Bao Tram and Le Thanh Tu.

Nguyen, Tram and the two other masters will represent Viet Nam's women's team at the 16th Asian Games this November in Guangzhou, China.

Phuong signs three-year deal with SHB Da Nang

National football team captain Nguyen Minh Phuong has signed a three-year contract with SHB Da Nang.

"We have signed the contract with a talented fullback. His salary and transfer fee won't be released, but I can say that it is at such a level, that he will make a real effort for us," said the team executive director Bui Xuan Hoa.

The team, who failed to defend their V-League title, have retained their veteran squad, while adding several new faces in an attempt to strengthen the team for the coming season.

The squad will convene on October 20 for training after a two-month break. — VNS

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Vietnam beats Jordan at Asian U19 contest

Vietnam came from behind to beat Jordan 2-1 in the opening match at the 2010 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championship in Shangdong, China on Monday.

Competing in Group C with Japan and U.A.E, Vietnam and Jordan began the match cautiously.

After about 10 minutes, the Vietnamese U19s quickened their pace and created some scoring opportunities. The clearest chance for Vietnam came in the 34^th minute but Duy Long failed to convert it.

A couple of minutes later, Jordan took the lead while the Vietnamese U19s were not paying attention.

Thinking the Jordanian players would return the ball after Vietnamese defender Xuan Hung kicked it out-of-bounds (to allow doctors to tend an injured teammate) a Jordanian player threw the ball to striker Zatara, who headed it home.

After the break, the Vietnamese players launched relentless attacks, putting the Jordanian rivals under constant pressure.

As a result, Vietnam equalized some 10 minutes after half time when Quoc Phuong’s free kick whizzed past Jordan’s goalkeeper.

The Vietnamese U19s seemed to draw energy from the goal and increased pressure on Jordan’s defender Israiwa. The heat proved too much for the young Jordanian; Vietnam took a second point with only 10 minutes left on the clock.

The Vietnamese players continued to dominate in the remaining minutes but no more goals were scored.

Vietnam’s U19 team coach Trieu Quang Ha said the win was very important. It heightened his players’ spirits before their match with Japan’s U19s, who defeated the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) 2-1 on Monday.

According to coach Quang Ha, the Japanese will prove strong rivals but the Vietnamese will take at least a point if they try their best.

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