New season starts soon

Whilst the Cambodian national team are busting a gut in Bangladesh to qualify for the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup finals, the Football Federation of Cambodia have released the fixtures for the first half of the brand new Cambodia Premier League season, which Phnom Penh Crown won last year, and then added the Hun Sen Cup to their trophy cabinet a month or so ago. The first games will kick-off this Saturday at 2pm at the Olympic Stadium when Kirivong are due to meet Khemara Keila. At 3.45pm the champions Phnom Penh Crown will face last year's runners-up National Defense Ministry, who are still in dispute with 5 of their players. There will be five matches each week, on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, as there are 10 teams in the CPL this season, and the first half of the campaign will end on 1 July. The 2nd half will run from 11 July through to 9 September. The only new face in the CPL this season is Spark FC, while Phuchung Neak were saved from relegation as Kampot didn't want to be promoted. It's all pretty last minute as is normally the case in Cambodia and with the national squad players not returning home from Dhaka until Friday, we'll have to wait and see whether they'll line up in the season's first games.