AFC President’s message
It gives me great pleasure to convey my best wishes to the Vietnamese football family on the occasion of the Vietnam Football Federation Congress (VFF) 2022.
There is no denying that football in Vietnamese has achieved a period of unparalleled success across all areas of football’s development in recent years.
In every way, the VFF’s commitment to excellence underlines the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) ambition to ensure the success of Asian teams and players through the Football Confederation’s Vision and Mission.
In the men’s game, we witnessed Vietnam create history after reaching the decisive stage of Asian’s road to the FIFA for the first time when they qualified for the AFC Asian Qualifier – Road to Qatar™.
More impressively, this success was the culmination of years of hard work exemplified through their first-ever AFC Asian Cup Quarter-final appearance in the United Arab Emirates in 2019 as well as their runner-up finish at the AFC U23 Championship™ 2018.
Similarly in women’s football, the women’s team made history at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 by qualifying for their first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.
On a global scale, Vietnam reached the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021 in Lithuania for the second time and their U20 team also qualified for the FIFA U20 World Cup Korea Republic 2017.
At the same time, they also won many achievements on the regional front with both men’s and women’s teams capturing the gold medal at the 2021 SEA Games, where Vietnam did an exceptional job as the host.
Success in elite football is the outcome of the strong youth development and coaching system and structures, so I am pleased to note that the VFF has also attained full membership of the AFC Elite Youth Scheme as well as A-Level membership of the AFC Coaching Convention.
I must also applaud the VFF’s progress off the pitch with concerted efforts undertaken to strenghthen the professionalism of the domestic league, and to enhance the level of competitions and international exposure of its youth teams.
These achievements are testament to the clear vision and foward planning of great visionaries, both past and present, including my dear friend Acting VFF President Dr. Tran Quoc Tuan, as well as members of the VFF Executive Committee and the collective strength and unity of the VFF Congress.
The AFC has been supporting the VFF through many tailor-made programmes to ensure greater professionalism and good governance, and I want to assure you of the AFC’s continuious support.
On behalf of the AFC, I salute the efforts of VFF and Vietnamese football family and together, I am confident that we will strengthen the foundation to enable football in Vietnamese to usher in greater successes in the years and decades to come. Thank you all and I wish you a successful Congress.
Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa
AFC President
