Man City signs the most expensive contract in history; VFF disciplines the "deputy general" of U23 Vietnam and HAGL

Man City signs most expensive contract in club history

Atletico Madrid's homepage recently announced that the reigning Premier League champions broke Rodrigo Hernandez's contract to bring this player to Etihad Stadium.

The Spanish club said: "La Liga has informed Atletico Madrid that Rodrigo Hernandez, through the player's lawyer and representatives of Manchester City, completed the contract release clause at the headquarters of the Sports Association on July 3."

"Man City has deposited the contract release clause for this player. Therefore, Rodri can unilaterally terminate the labor contract binding this player with Atletico Madrid, which lasts until June 30, 2023," the announcement on the team's homepage added.

Rodri had a successful season with Atletico Madrid. Photo: Getty Images.

According to BBC Sport, to recruit this player, the Etihad team had to spend up to 62.6 million pounds. The fee made Rodri the most expensive contract in the club's history after surpassing the record of 60 million pounds of Riyad Mahrez in 2018.

The midfielder, born in 1996, joined Atletico Madrid from Villarreal in May 2018 and has made 47 appearances in all competitions for "Los Rojiblancos". Rodri was one of the major contributors to the team's second place finish in La Liga last season.

He has also made six appearances for the Spanish national team since the friendly against Germany a year ago. The new Man City player promises to be a replacement for Sergio Busquets in "La Roja" in the future.

AFC Cup takes Vietnamese clubs and players

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has just announced the final match schedule of the AFC Cup. A very complicated match schedule with high density and unreasonable travel routes. Especially for Vietnamese clubs (VN), they will have to work hard when traveling and competing.

The AFC Cup ASEAN champion will certainly belong to a representative of Vietnamese football, Hanoi or B. Binh Duong. Ironically, this ASEAN champion will then face a tight schedule of tournaments from the beginning of September, especially since many players in the club still play for the Vietnamese national team and the U-22+2 team.

The Vietnam team's match schedule in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in 2019 will take place on September 5 and 10; October 10 and 15; November 14 and 19.

Meanwhile, the two AFC Cup finals, ASEAN zone between Hanoi and B. Binh Duong will be played on July 31 and August 7. The winning team will then play the runner-up of AFC Cup 2018, Altyn Asyr (Turkmenistan), in two matches on August 20 and 27 in the “inter-zone semi-final”. Next, the winning team will play the inter-zone final against the representative of North Korea or Bangladesh on September 25 and October 2.

In addition, the inter-regional champion will play the official final with the winner of the West Asia regional match between Al Jazeera (Jordan) and Al Ahed (Lebanon) on November 2.

With the format and schedule of the AFC Cup, it is clearly difficult to ensure the health and aspirations of Vietnamese representatives such as Hanoi and B. Binh Duong.

VFF disciplines "deputy general" of U23 Vietnam and HAGL

The Vietnam Football Federation Disciplinary Board has issued a disciplinary decision against Mr. Nguyen Van Dan, assistant coach of HAGL.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dan, assistant coach of HAGL.

In the match of the 1/8 round of the National Cup 2019, HAGL held Than Quang Ninh to a 2-2 draw and then won in the penalty shootout to secure a ticket to the quarterfinals. In that match, assistant Nguyen Van Dan reacted inappropriately and was invited to the stands by referee Hoang Anh Tuan.

Fine 5,000,000 VND (Five million VND) and suspend from duty for the next 01 match Mr. Nguyen Van Dan, assistant coach of HAGL football club, for reacting to the referee in the match between Than Quang Ninh and HAGL football clubs, on June 28, 2019 at Cua Ong stadium, Quang Ninh.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dan is also an assistant of U23 Vietnam. During the U23 Vietnam team meeting in early June 2019, Mr. Dan also contributed to helping U23 Vietnam defeat U23 Myanmar in a friendly match held at Viet Tri Stadium (Phu Tho)./.

Exceeding financial targets, VFF still cannot close negotiations with coach Park

Sharing after the 3rd Executive Committee Meeting of the 8th term held on the afternoon of July 3, VFF admitted that it has not yet finalized the schedule for final negotiations to extend the contract with coach Park.

VFF is confident of mobilizing enough finance to pay salaries for Coach Park and his colleagues after completing the 2019 financial target in just the first 6 months of the year.

Vice President in charge of communications Cao Van Chong affirmed that in the financial report, all targets for 2019 were achieved within the first 6 months of the year. This also means that with the support of fans, businesses and social organizations, VFF will exceed this year's financial targets.

“We are very receptive in negotiations and will certainly offer a regime commensurate with Mr. Park’s contributions. VFF is currently negotiating and cannot announce a specific figure yet.

On the contrary, VFF also has targets for Mr. Park and needs a smooth negotiation within VFF's financial capacity. Through the first meeting, the representative and Mr. Park are also very receptive. We are confident that together with our partners, we will provide enough salary for Coach Park Hang Seo and his assistants, as well as take care of the training and competition of the men's, women's, and futsal teams," said Mr. Cao Van Chong.

This confident statement by Mr. Chong shows that finance is not the biggest problem in extending the contract with Coach Park Hang Seo. However, the big question about the nearest time for a negotiation between VFF and Coach Park has not been finalized by the members of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Football Federation.