Indonesia made 2 important decisions, determined to keep the SEA Games 'gold'; V-League was 'rescued' at the last minute: Happy or worried?
The Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) also requires clubs to register 5 U23 players; V-League still lacks an effective crisis prevention and handling mechanism. These are notable sports news in the past 24 hours.
Vietnam women's team finalizes list for Southeast Asian tournament
The coaching staff of the Vietnam Women's National Team finalized the list of players participating in the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's Football Championship on the afternoon of August 4.
Notable in this list is the return of midfielder Nguyen Thi Thanh Nha, after a period of absence due to injury, promising to strengthen the midfield of the Vietnam National Team.
Coach Mai Duc Chung and his colleagues also continue to trust and give opportunities to many promising young faces such as Nguyen Thi Truc Huong and Tran Thi Thu Xuan (TKSVN), bringing a new breeze to the team in the journey to conquer the regional arena.
According to the draw results, the Vietnamese women's team is in Group A with opponents Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. The opening match will take place at 7:30 p.m. on August 6 against Cambodia at Lach Tray Stadium (Hai Phong).
Indian team "save" Malaysian team to attend CAFA Cup
The Indian team has a new coach, Jamil, shortly after coach Manolo Marquez was fired. Just after taking office, coach Khalid Jamil of the Indian team immediately took on a new challenge.
India will participate in the Central Asian Cup (CAFA Cup 2025) in Tajikistan instead of Malaysia, who withdrew. India are in Group B along withIran Afghanistan and hosts Tajikistan. While Group A has Uzbekistan, Oman, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan
Coach Khalid Jamal was appointed as the interim head coach. This is the first time in 20 years that a domestic coach has been in charge of the Indian national team. In 2005, Coach Sukhvindar Singh was the last domestic coach to lead the Indian national team.
Indonesia makes 2 important decisions, determined to keep the SEA Games "gold"
In addition to completely stopping the national championship when the 33rd SEA Games takes place, the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) also stipulates that clubs must register 5 U23 players, with at least 1 player playing each match, in order to have the strongest force to defend the Southeast Asian Gold Medal.
Indonesian football authorities have just made a series of important decisions about the domestic tournament starting from August 8, focusing on improving the quality of the national U22 team towards defending the SEA Games 33 football championship.
Accordingly, PSSI will stop the entire 2025/26 national championship from December 1 to December 19 to serve the national U22 team competing in the 33rd SEA Games (taking place in Thailand from December 9 to 20.
V-League was 'rescued' at the last minute: Happy or worried?
As soon as the information about Quang Nam Club, the V-League champion 2017, asked to withdraw from the 2025/26 campaign, a gloomy atmosphere covered the tournament. The scenario of V-League new season with only 13 participating teams appeared clearly, bringing with it a series of consequences.
Having an odd number of teams in the V-League will break the traditional match schedule structure, causing one team to rest each round. This not only affects the continuity in maintaining the players' form but also negatively impacts the interest of fans.
In that context, the fact that PVF - CAND accepted to "promote" to replace Quang Nam's V-League spot was considered a spectacular "rescue" that made the Organizing Committee breathe a sigh of relief.
The fact that a club cannot continue to participate due to financial or organizational reasons shows that there are unfilled gaps in the way the country's football is run.
So, behind the short-term joy of maintaining the number of teams, there are long-term concerns about the governance model, financial standardization, and especially the commitment of the participating clubs.
V-League still lacks an effective mechanism for preventing and handling crises. Without fundamental reforms, last-minute team withdrawals will continue to happen frequently.
