By David Gold
January 26 – The Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Competitions Committee has moved the region’s qualifiers for the London 2012 Olympic Games football tournament from Malaysia to Vietnam.
Malaysia had initially been awarded the tournament in November but the switch was made as work still needs to be done on the stadium that was planned to stage the Olympic qualification matches.
“Malaysia had originally been chosen but renovations to the proposed stadium, as well as the unavailability of other venues due to the scheduling of domestic fixtures meant that a new destination for the three-team playoffs was required,” the AFC said in a statement on their website.
The identity of the participants in the tournament are as yet unknown.
Asia is currently in its third round of qualifying games for the Olympics, with three four team groups being played, from which the winners of each will automatically secure a spot in London.
The three runners up, who at this moment look most likely to be Oman, Iraq and Syria, will all go to Vietnam for the penultimate qualifying stage, though there are still three matches to go in the current round.
When the three teams who make it to Vietnam have played each other, if two are level at the top, they will go head to head on March 31.
The tournament is set to get underway on March 25.
The winner will progress to face Senegal in the final qualifier at Coventry on April 23.
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