match fixing as the Court of
Appeals in Stockholm rules he
and one other tried to influence
AIK keeper Kyriakos Stamatopoulos
to fix a match in 2017.
Thursday November 14
EURO 2020: Czech Republic,
England, France and Turkey all
book their place in the finals.
Friday November 15
ARGENTINA: Lionel Messi scores
the only goal of the game as
Argentina beat Brazil in a friendly.
EURO 2020: Finland reach the
finals of a major tournament for
the first time, where they will be
joined by Sweden.
Saturday November 16
EURO 2020: Germany and
Holland qualify from Group C and
go through to the finals, along with
Austria and Croatia.
Sunday November 17
EURO 2020: Portugal qualify for
the finals as Group B runners-up.
UNDER-17 WORLD CUP: Hosts
Brazil beat Mexico 2-1 in the Final.
Monday November 18
EURO 2020: Switzerland finish topfirst time. Then, in January, Vietnam demonstrated that
it could compete at senior level in a continental-wide
competition, reaching the last eight of the Asian Cup,
held in the UAE, before losing 1-0 to Japan.
Next up was the start of qualification for the 2022
World Cup, in which they took 10 points from their
first four games: a draw in Thailand and then wins
over Indonesia, Malaysia and UAE.
For Vietnam to get to the next stage would be
a huge statement of intent, but there are issues.
The local league needs to improve and the level of
politics in the domestic
game is too high, while
average attendances of
around 7,000 are too
low. The standards of
professionalism at a
number of clubs could
also do with improving.
While Vietnamese fans are desperate to see players
such as Quang Hai head to Europe, many of the local
clubs are hard to deal with.
National coach Park signed a new contract in
November that gave him a major pay rise from the
$20,000 or so he was receiving every month. But,
to be fair, the 60-year-old doesn’t really need the
money as he fronts an increasing number of advertising
campaigns, especially for anything that is vaguely
related to Korea.
Park has been touted as a future boss of South
Korea but, with the way things are going in Vietnam, if
he wants to lead a team at the next World Cup there
may not be any need to go home.WORLD SERVICEOld boss...Park worked with Guus Hiddink (left) in South KoreaFans are desperate to see
players such as Quang Hai
head to Europe, but local
clubs are hard to deal withThrough...Portugal are
off to the Euro finals