Football

VFF President Trần Quốc Tuấn (right) receives the President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots Football at the AFC Annual Awards 2023 held in Seoul, South Korea, on October 29. Photo of VFF

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam Football Federation was handed a President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots Football at the AFC Annual Awards 2023 held in Seoul, South Korea, on October 29.

The Federation took home a bronze award in recognition of their strong commitment towards grassroots football, establishing long-term sustainable programmes, facilitating regional involvement and creating robust partnerships with various stakeholders across the country.

The award was one of total 18 categories presented to AFC federation members and individuals, with Australia followed by India, taking gold and silver in the president's category.

In 2023-24 season, in addition to improving the national professional leagues, VFF worked to sustainably develop other tournaments in the local football system, such as the national women's championships, the youth football championships, with U9s to U21s tournaments both boys and girls, men's and women's futsal and beach football.

VFF helped popularise community football development projects, especially in a school football programme with the Ministry of Education and Training, which was been taken across about a thousand schools across 63 cities and provinces.

The Football for All in Vietnam (FFAV), a project by VFF and the Football Association of Norway has been extended to 15 cities and provinces. The Việt Nam -- Norway football tournament features up to 4,000 primary and secondary students, with up to half of them being girls teams.

VFF has published a set of official training documents for children aged U6 to U12 and supported football tournaments for younger students in many localities, pushing the development of the football movement.

VFF was also an AFC active member in terms of social responsibility activities and committed to promote the AFC Movement Football Charter, along with organising activities in response to AFC Women's Football Festival (March 8, 2023) and the Football Festival (May 15).

At the gala, the AFC also honoured many individuals such as AFC Coach of the Year, AFC Futsal Player of the Year, AFC Women’s Player of the Year (men and women), AFC Asian International Player of the Year (men and women), AFC Youth Player of the Year (men and women) and a Referees Special Award. VNS