Vietnam’s head football coach will need an extra set of coaching staff for both the national and U23 teams to prosper this year, a meeting between Vietnam Football Federation and its coaching council heard on Thursday.

Calisto, who wasn’t invited to the meeting, said he was unhappy that he couldn’t be present when the proposal was made and declined to comment.

“Like all the Vietnamese football fans, we have nothing but good will and respect for Calisto for his contributions to Vietnam’s historic AFF Cup championship last year.”

Phuc said there will, however, be crucial times during 2009 when both the national and ^23 teams would be training for important competitions and there just wouldn’t be enough Calisto to go around.

“We are concerned that Calisto’s health would not be good enough to adequately fulfill his role as coach of both teams.”

Phuc pointed out that in 2007 the Austrian tactician Alfred Riedl was in a similar position to Calisto now. Under the then coach the national team did well in the Asian Cup but the U23 team suffered such a bad loss at the 24th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games near the end of the year that Riedl was forced to resign.

Phuc said it was important to learn from that lesson and use good coaches in the best way. He said if nothing was done Calisto would be under great pressure in October with both teams - about 50 players - playing in important competitions. It would be a failure if management was bad, Phuc said.

Phuc suggested forming two separate coaching staffs to support Calisto as the head coach.

“Calisto should understand that the coaches council just wants to assist him,” added another official of the council.

The Portuguese tactician will meet with VFF and the coaching council on March 4.

Reported by Lan Phuong