{"id":23574,"date":"2020-07-30T18:38:29","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T09:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=23574"},"modified":"2020-07-30T18:38:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T09:38:29","slug":"malaysia-vietnam-to-host-afc-club-competition-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2020\/07\/30\/malaysia-vietnam-to-host-afc-club-competition-matches\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia, Vietnam to Host AFC Club Competition Matches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/linktr.ee\/KrishnaSadhana7\"><strong>Krishna Sadhana<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Football Tribe SEA Editor<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have officially appointed Malaysia and Vietnam to host the remaining group stage matches of this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League and AFC Cup in the East Asia and ASEAN Zones respectively. Stadiums in Malaysia will play host to the remaining matches of the AFC Champions League&#8217;s Groups G and H, while Vietnam will host the remaining matches of Groups F and G.<\/p>\n<p>No word were given on who will host the AFC Champions League&#8217;s Group F and the AFC Cup&#8217;s Group H.<\/p>\n<p>Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta&#8217;zim are members of Group G of this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League, meaning that their brand new Sultan Ibrahim Stadium is most likely going to get the nod to host that group&#8217;s matches. Having hosted JDT&#8217;s continental matches the previous year, the old Tan Sri Dato&#8217; Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium (better known as Larkin Stadium) is also a likely candidate to be the group&#8217;s alternate venue.<\/p>\n<p>Malaysia&#8217;s national stadium, the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, is also a likely candidate due to its close proximity from the AFC headquarters. Having hosted AFC Champions League qualifiers in the past two years, Kedah FA&#8217;s Darul Aman Stadium in Alor Setar and Perak FA&#8217;s Perak Stadium in Ipoh are also likely to be chosen. Negeri Sembilan FA&#8217;s Tuanku Abdul Rahman Stadium in Seremban is also a likely candidate having hosted matches of the Syria national team in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification stage, a distinction shared with Melaka United&#8217;s Hang Jebat Stadium, another likely candidate. Kuala Lumpur FA&#8217;s KLFA Stadium in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur has hosted last year&#8217;s AFC Cup final and could be likely to get the nod as well, while the newly renovated Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Terengganu could become a surprise candidate.<\/p>\n<p>Malaysia must consider an adequate amount of stadiums to be used in this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League, as they are not only to host Groups G and H, but also the knockout matches of the East Asia Zone, which includes the round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the AFC have appointed the Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City and Quang Ninh Province&#8217;s Cam Pha Stadium to host the remaining matches of Groups F and G of this year&#8217;s AFC Cup. Last year&#8217;s V.League 1 runners-up Ho Chi Minh City FC are members of Group F alongside Singapore&#8217;s Hougang United, Myanmar&#8217;s Yangon United, and Lao Toyota of Laos, while Than Quang Ninh are in Group G with Filipino giants United City FC (formerly Ceres-Negros), Indonesian champions Bali United, and Cambodian champions Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng.<\/p>\n<p>Both the hosts of Group H and the ASEAN knockout stage will be announced by the AFC in due time.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, the AFC has appointed Qatar to host this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League&#8217;s group stage matches for the West Asia Zone as well as the region&#8217;s knockout stages, while Maldives were given the honor of hosting the South Asia Zone group stage matches of this year&#8217;s AFC Cup. The final of this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League is also confirmed to be played in West Asia.<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted both the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup severely this year, with both competitions being suspended since March, with the AFC planning for a mid-September return for both competitions in order for their final matches to be played by December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Krishna Sadhana Football Tribe SEA Editor &nbsp; The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have officially appointed Malaysia and Vietnam to host the remaining group stage matches of this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League and AFC Cup in the East Asia and ASEAN Zones respectively. Stadiums in Malaysia will play host to the remaining matches of the AFC Champions League&#8217;s Groups G and H, while Vietnam will host the remaining matches of Groups F and G. No word were given on who will host the AFC Champions League&#8217;s Group F and the AFC Cup&#8217;s Group H. Malaysian champions Johor Darul Ta&#8217;zim are members of Group G of this year&#8217;s AFC Champions League, meaning &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2020\/07\/30\/malaysia-vietnam-to-host-afc-club-competition-matches\/\" class=\"tribe-more-link\">Continue reading &#8220;Malaysia, Vietnam to Host AFC Club Competition Matches&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":23575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,63,25],"tags":[298,130,151,629,65,64,95,507,105],"class_list":["post-23574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afc-champions-league","category-afc-cup","category-asia","tag-afc","tag-afc-champions-league","tag-afc-cup","tag-ho-chi-minh-city-fc","tag-johor-darul-tazim","tag-malaysia","tag-slider","tag-than-quang-ninh","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23576,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23574\/revisions\/23576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}