Football 

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam Football Federation (VFF) officials and international football governing bodies have agreed to work together to lead the national women's league towards sustainable professional development in the near future.

The deal was made at a conference for a recent collaborative project conducted by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which focused on solutions to improve the quality of tournaments and enhance club management capabilities.

VFF General Secretary Nguyễn Văn Phú said the partnership with the AFC and UEFA will play a significant role in the strategy to develop women's football in Việt Nam.

He thanked both organisations for their support in helping the VFF carry out the project through 2027, adding that the federation has been working to raise the standard of domestic competitions. 

Part of these efforts include transforming the National Women's Football Championship into a league-based format and introducing a club licensing system for women's football starting this year.

UEFA representative and expert Lowri Roberts said that UEFA is collaborating with the VFF to implement three key initiatives: formulating a women's football development strategy, fostering girls' youth football and enhancing the quality of the National Women's Football Championship.

She said long-term goals are to increase the number of girls participating in football, build a talent pipeline for national teams and boost the tournament's commercial value to attract external resources.

 

In her presentation, Roberts emphasised the importance of having a clear development vision, effective club management and a well-defined player pathway from the youth ranks to the top team. 

Beyond improving performance, she noted that clubs also need to enhance player welfare and invest in media, commercial and branding activities to increase the league's overall appeal.

AFC representative Amir Assokan Abdullah said there is significant room for the development of women's football in Việt Nam, noting that the gradual professionalisation of the country's championship is an inevitable trend.

Clubs needed to effectively leverage support from the AFC and UEFA to refine their operational models, expand their fanbases, attract sponsorship and improve conditions for team development.

Phú said he hopes that clubs will apply their shared knowledge and experience to enhance the quality of their operations, thus helping build a national championship that is increasingly professional, engaging and sustainable, while laying the foundation for the future development of women's football in Việt Nam.

Local development

Previously, VFF worked with FIFA experts during an Amateur Football Environment Analysis seminar to review the current football scene and outline the future development of local football in Việt Nam.

According to Phú, local football plays a foundational role in the national football ecosystem.

National teams are built on talent emerging from community football centres and local arenas, so the development of the game at the grassroots level is crucial to the sustainable future of Vietnamese football, he said.

FIFA Grassroots Instructor Chokey Nima presented a research reporting system comprising global and specialised reports for individual member associations.

According to FIFA statistics, grassroots football accounts for 99 per cent of all football activity worldwide. These findings were based on a survey covering 185 of FIFA’s 211 member associations through survey responses, interviews and analysis of thousands of forms.

 

Nima said the effective development of local football requires a focus on four core elements: participants, organisational activities, the workforce responsible for implementation and appropriate development strategies.

FIFA indicated that there are currently around 28 million officially registered players worldwide, whereas the number of people participating in grassroots football is approximately 300 million. Average density stands at 59 football pitches per one million inhabitants.

Another FIFA representative, Aris Caslib, said the world governing body is conducting in-depth research on amateur football in local football bodies. Collected data will be a key foundation for Việt Nam to build development strategies tailored to the country's current football scene.

Caslib noted that local football in Việt Nam today is developing in a fragmented manner, lacking cohesive coordination among tournaments, schools and relevant organisations.

This risks overlooking young talent during identification and training processes. Furthermore, the number of professionally certified coaches remains limited, significantly below the global average.

Based on these analyses, FIFA experts urged the VFF to build a centralised database system and strengthen connectivity among stakeholders within the grassroots football ecosystem, while expanding long-term training programmes for coaches and administrators.

Developing school football and promoting female participation in community football activities were also identified as key priorities for the next few years.

FIFA reaffirmed its commitment to support Việt Nam in developing local football, contributing to the sustainable growth of the beautiful game in the country for years to come. — VNS