AFF honors VFF: Encouragement in 'extreme adversity'

(Baonghean) -On the evening of September 23, the 2017 Awards Gala of the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF Awards) took place solemnly in Bali (Indonesia).

This is an opportunity for AFF to evaluate and recognize the achievements of its member federations, teams, coaches, players, referees, etc., from the regional arena of the AFF Cup to tournaments from youth systems to national teams in the continent. What surprised everyone was that at this award ceremony, Vietnamese football was honored in many categories, both collective and individual.

VFF was honored by AFF at the 2017 Awards Gala. Photo: Internet

At this year’s Gala, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) received the award for the Best Football Federation in Southeast Asia. To receive this award, according to AFF, in 2016 and 2017, VFF successfully organized international football events of AFC and AFF such as the Asian Futsal Club Championship, Asian Women’s Qualifiers, Asian U23 Qualifiers, etc.

Along with that, Vietnam's youth teams have also continuously achieved impressive results on the continental stage (U19 Vietnam became the only representative of Southeast Asia to participate in the 2017 U20 World Cup; U16 Vietnam reached the quarter-finals of the 2016 U16 Asian Cup; the Vietnam futsal team participated in the Futsal World Cup for the first time).

Also at this Gala, Coach Mai Duc Chung was honored to receive the award for the best Coach of the Year for women's football coaches; national player Doan Van Hau (18 years old, Hanoi FC) was also awarded the award for the best young player in Southeast Asia; in addition, female assistant referee Truong Thi Le Trinh was also awarded the award for the best assistant referee of the year and national player Trong Hoang (FLC Thanh Hoa FC) was in the squad of 11 typical players of Southeast Asian football.

This can be seen as an encouragement for those working in Vietnamese football in a situation where the VFF is "in a mess" from the confusion in selecting a head coach for the men's football team, to the decline in the quality of the V.League. As the AFF General Secretary said at the Gala, the award that the VFF received "is an award for the National Football Federation that has demonstrated professionalism in management activities, actively and effectively contributed to the development of national football, and hosted regional football events in the past year".

While AFF has a very positive view of what VFF has done in the past 2 years, Vietnamese football fans believe that VFF is making Vietnamese football regress (the national teams continuously fail at AFF Cup, SEA Games, V. League, becoming increasingly boring), so if we want our country's football to develop, we need to urgently reform VFF.

It seems that, with what AFF assessed about VFF, perhaps Vietnamese football fans also need to have an objective and fair view of what VFF has done and has not done in the recent past, instead of being "possessed" and denying everything, leading to VFF also panicking and then acting in a "hot hand, catching ears" manner to deal with public opinion.

Duc Dung