Vietnam and Thailand national teams lost their "seed" spots in AFF Cup 2014
Due to poor results in the last two AFF Cups (2010 and 2012), the Vietnam national team was not placed in the seed group at the 2014 AFF Cup. Along with Vietnam, Thailand also suffered the same fate.
The information was released yesterday (August 26), when the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) held its annual congress in East Timor. During this important meeting, the AFF evaluated and ranked the seeds for the AFF Cup 2014.
Vietnam national football team will have to compete in the qualifying round of AFF Cup 2014.
According to the rules, the 4 teams with the highest scores are automatically qualified for the final round. The factor for AFF to divide the points is the team's performance in the last two AFF Cups. Accordingly, Malaysia became the number 1 seed with 20 points. Next is defending champion Singapore with 18 points. Surprisingly, the Philippines also won 18 points like Singapore but ranked 3rd. This is also the first time the Philippines has entered the seed group in an AFF Cup. The 4th face is Indonesia with 17 points.
Meanwhile, Thailand and Vietnam share 5th and 6th place. Thailand has 16 points, 1 point more than Vietnam. Although still present in the final round, not being in the seed group may cause difficulties for Vietnam. It is not impossible that we will fall into a difficult group, the group that people often call "Group of Death". It is also necessary to emphasize that in the past 10 years, it is rare for Thai and Vietnamese football to not be in the seed group at the same time in a tournament under the AFF system.
It is known that the final round will take place from November 22, 2014 to December 20, 2014 in the two host countries, Singapore and Vietnam. The official draw ceremony for the 2014 AFF Cup finals will be held after the 2014 World Cup ends.
Another important information from the AFF Annual Congress, all 11 members of AFF voted to recognize Football Federation Australia (FFA) as an official full member of AFF. And with this information, many fans hope that Australia will be given special permission to participate in AFF Cup 2014. Because the presence of the Australian team promises to help AFF Cup 2014 become more attractive and of higher quality.
According to Bongdaplus - DT
