Gao Hongbo stopped short of criticising the referee after his China side picked up their first point of the final phase of Asia's World Cup qualifying campaign on Tuesday with a 0-0 draw with Iran in Shenyang.

China lost their opening game against South Korea 3-2 on Thursday and could not afford to slip up again against Carlos Queiroz's team.

Gao was pleased his side had emerged with something from a difficult start to their attempt qualify for Russia, though he declined to comment on claims China...

After only three months in the job, former Iran head coach Afshin Ghotbi has been sacked by Premier League of Thailand champions Buriram United.

Ghotbi was shown the door on Saturday night, despite guiding Buriram to a 2-1 victory at Army United FC.

The win took the Thunder Castle to third on the table -- the top three in Thailand have a chance at playing in the AFC Champions League -- but the club are 19 points behind leaders, Muang Thong United.

Ghotbi was only appointed in May, taking over from...

Hosts Singapore turned in a battling display but came up short in the inaugural FAS Under-21 International Challenge Cup after they were beaten 1-0 by Iran in Saturday night's final at Bishan Stadium.

Mehdi Mehdikhani grabbed the only goal of the game shortly after the half-hour mark to win it for the Iranians, although they did have to weather some late pressure as the hosts searched desperately for an equaliser.

The defeat means Singapore are have now lost their past three meetings against Iran...