Football

New General Secretary Nguyễn Văn Phú (left), Preisdent Trần Quốc Tuấn (centre) and current General Secretary Dương Nghiệp Khôi at the VFF's 2024 Annual General Meeting. — Photos of VFF

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam Football Federation has appointed Doctor Nguyễn Văn Phú its new General Secretary and assigned tasks for the national teams at the 2024 Annual General Meeting.

Phú will replace current General Secretary Dương Nghiệp Khôi whose contract with the VFF will expire by the end of this year and he sent his resignation letter two months ago.

Khôi was appointed to the position two years ago for the working term of 2022-26 under the suggestion of President Trần Quốc Tuấn.

Prior to that, he used to work as Head of the Organising Committee of Việt Nam's professional football leagues; VFF Deputy General Secretary of VFF, Head of Việt Nam Football Delegation in different international competitions and CEO of several local clubs.

Phú will start working from November 23 until the end of 2026. The decision was officially announced at the congress on November 22 in Hà Nội.

He is currently Head of the VFF Sports Medicine Department, Deputy Head of the VFF Medical Department and Member of the Asian Football Confederation's Medical Committee.

Earlier, he was Deputy Director cum Head of Việt Nam Sports Hospital; and Head of the Health Subcommittee of the Sports Authority of Việt Nam. He was also leader of the medical team of Vietnamese sports delegations at many SEA Games, Asian Games and Olympics.

He supported to help the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Centre be recognised as an Excellent Sports Medicine Center according to AFC standards.

The appointment will not affect the VFF's plan for 2025, which adhere to six main goals to develop national football such as goals for the 2026 and 30 World Cups, youth football and futsal development and the application of science and technology to football.

Reviewing and evaluating its activities of the year, VFF achieved many positive achievements in community football; foreign affairs and international relations; and strong investment for national women's football. The body also paid special attention to sport medicine; develop and upgrade the quality of the referees in all leagues.

Notably, in 2024 the national team will have an important ASEAN Cup in December. The team are asked to at least qualify for the final match.

The national football team practise at the VFF's Youth Football Training Centre for the 2024 ASEAN Cup.

"Players have been practising for the tournament from November 21 and will leave for South Korean training camp on November 23," said VFF Vice President Trần Anh Tú.

"The camp is expected to improve players' physical fitness and we will support them the best to be ready for the Cup. The target is final match's slot which is not an easy mission when rival such as Indonesia and Thailand are very strong," he said.

World Cup plans

VFF has set a target of earning two World Cup slots through qualifications in 2025.

The first hope is the U17 team which qualified for the Asian Cup Finals as one of five best second-placed team of the qualification earlier this year.

VFF evaluates the team have big opportunity to earn a slot in the FIFA U17 World Cup for the first time in history. The tournament will be held in Qatar.

But first of all, they will need to overcome the group stage at the Asian Cup Finals next April in Saudi Arabia.

"VFF will send the U17 team to training courses abroad. They are asked to advance to the top eight teams which will qualify for the World Cup as the AFC representatives," Tú said.

The second hope is the women's futsal team which just secured the regional championship title on November 21 in the Philippines.

The Asian qualification will be held in January, 2025, where Việt Nam are in Group D with Chinese Taipei, Macao and host Myanmar.

The women's futsal team are expected to win World Cup slot in 2025.

Nine best teams from this tournament will take part in the Finals in China in May. The Chinese tournament serves as the qualifying for the inaugural 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup in the Philippines in November.

"Players will gather for training later this month. They may have training courses abroad or VFF will invite some teams to Việt Nam for friendly matches. It will depend on the Finals' draw result," Tú said.

"We are world No 11 so we hope that we would avoid world powerhouses such as Japan and Iran in the early stages so that we can advance to knock-out stage. It is not easy but we still set a World Cup target." — VNS