The inter-regional cup match between Vietnam and South Korea may be postponed.

On 15 December 2018, the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) and the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) signed a memorandum of understanding on a match to be held between the champions of the Southeast Asian region and the champions of the East Asian region.

According to the plan, this remarkable match will take place at My Dinh Stadium on March 26, 2019. However, this time coincides with the schedule of the 2020 AFC U23 Qualifiers, a tournament in which many players are participating in the Vietnam U23 team. This will make it impossible for the Vietnam National Team to gather the strongest force to serve the reception of the East Asian football champion.

The East Asian champion also stopped at the quarter-finals of the 2019 Asian Cup like the Vietnam national team. Photo: AFC

For this reason, VFF has officially sent a document to AFF proposing to adjust the match date between Vietnam and Korea. Based on VFF's request and based on the FIFA international match schedule (FIFA day) as well as discussions with the East Asian Football Federation and the Korea Football Federation, the AFF Council will consider and decide to adjust the match schedule to another most suitable time.

Vietnam is currently ranked 16th in Asia and is in Group 2 in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. If they lose to the Korean team in the match held on the scheduled date, Vietnam may have points deducted and drop in the FIFA rankings to Group 3 in Asia. This will put the "Golden Star Warriors" in a more difficult group, greatly affecting their hopes of advancing to the next qualifying rounds of the 2022 World Cup in Asia.