Vietnam has been selected to be the host for two regional competitions, namely the Under-19 Football Tournament and the 2009 Futsal Championships, according to the Vietnam Football Federation.

VFF General Secretary, Tran Quoc Tuan, said that the two competitions will take place in Ho Chi Minh City. The U-19 tournament will be held from June 14-20, while the Futsal championships will last from August 5-15 following a decision made at the recent 8^th meeting of the Asian Football Federation (AFF) Council in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Vietnam was praised by the AFF for the country’s efforts to develop football, as well as its wonderful victory at the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup under the leadership of coach Henrique Calisto.

Furthermore, under the guide of coach Tran Van Phat, the Vietnamese women’s football squad also secured second place at the 2008 Southeast Asia Women’s Football Championships.

AFF also recognised the PetroVietnam Gas V-League as the most attractive football competition in the region. The on-going 2009 football season has been attracting huge numbers of fans, with an average figure of more than 10,000 fans at each match.

According to the AFF, the Thai-League (Thailand) and S-League (Singapore) are less attractive then V-League (Vietnam) as they only drew between 2,000-4,000 fans a match.

VietNamNet/VOV