Macao Football Teams Resuming Training and Men's Team Awaiting New Coach

Macao's sports were put on a long hold in the first half of 2020 due to the epidemic. Likewise, the Macau Football Association was heavily impacted as Macao's football teams of all echelons and groups failed to get back to training until the end of May. The teams' technical director and former men's team chief coach Iong Cho Ieng said“For now, only men's U-23, men's U-20, women's senior team and women's U-15 are back on training.”

Iong said“There's yet to be a plan for training the men's senior team, as the new coach for the team is kept out of Macao by the epidemic and the timeline for this year's matches still up in the air. The men's matches that were to take place this year have been postponed to next year.”As for the men's U-23 training, Iong said“The candidates for the team include former U-23 reserve team members (at an appropriate age) and newly-promoted former U-19 members. They are trained on a weekly basis by the U-23 coaching groups with a focus on recovery and individual techniques, and will be further selected to form a new U-23 team when the new coach arrives. The U-23 will be looking at the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers next June although the specific schedule is yet to be released by the AFC. At the same time, the men's U-20 team is getting prepared for the 2022 FIFA U-20 World Cup Preliminary Competition and AFC U-20 Championship Qualifiers.”

The women's teams also resumed training at the end of May, and the line-up remains unchanged. Iong said“We plan to bring new players onto the women's teams once the epidemic further stabilizes. We aim at expanding our women's U-15 team with a view to attending FIFA and AFC matches for all age groups in the future.”