VietNamNet
Bridge – The Vietnam Football Federation’s (AFF) Secretary General Tran Quoc
Tuan has been elected to the Asian Football Federation (AFC) Executive Board.
On this occasion, Tuan talked with a local newspaper about the position of Vietnam’s football in Asia.

Could
you tell our readers about the election procedures to the AFC Executive Board?

Vietnam Football Federation’s (AFF) Secretary General Tran Quoc Tuan

AFC includes 46 members, divided into four
regions: East Asia, West Asia, Southeast Asia and Central
Asia. Each region has three representatives in the AFC Executive
Board. At the recent meeting in Doha (Qatar), Vietnam was one of the five
candidates for the AFC Executive Board in the 2011-2015 tenure. I won the
election with 30/45 ballots and became the representative of Southeast Asia
together with the Secretary General of the Singaporean Football Federation –
Lee Winston – and the Chair of the Myanmar Football Federation Zaw Zaw.

What
is the meaning of your success in the poll to Vietnam’s football?

This is an honor not only for me personally
but for Vietnam’s
football in general. This is the first time since Vietnam joined the AFC it has a
representative in AFC Executive Board. It proves that Vietnam is making significant contribution to
the development of football in Southeast Asia and in Asia
and the contribution is recognized by the AFC.

Vietnam’s
football now holds an important position in the region and the continent. Many
countries only attach importance to the national teams and neglect friendship
tournaments. Vietnam
has fully participated in football tournaments for young players and women and
won encouraging achievements.

The Vietnamese national squad also made an
imprint with the AFF Cup 2008 championship, entering the final qualifier round
of the Olympic Beijing and the final round of the Asian Cup 2007. Vietnam is also one of the top football teams in
Southeast Asia.

The ASEAN Football Federation and the AFC
assigned Vietnam
to host the final rounds of the AFF Cup 1998, 2004, 2010, Asian Cup 2007 (for
men) and 2008 (for women) and Southeast Asian young football championships like
U16, U17 and U19.

How
will Vietnam’s
football benefit from having its representative in the AFC Executive Board?

AFC is the organization that makes the
development plan for football in Asia. Joining
AFC Executive Board, Vietnam
will have many opportunities to develop its football.

Singapore
is also a member of the AFC Executive Board but their football has suffered a
huge setback. They have dissolved the national squad. What do you think about
this?

It is normal to see a national squad not
convene after a major tournament. It is also normal for Singapore to change the personnel. Singapore
doesn’t dissolve its national football squad but they are performing a deep
reform, though it is quite late.

I talked with Mr. Lee Winston (Secretar
General of the Singaporean Football Federation) and know that Singapore is not building a
completely new team. They will still keep some pillar players and the chief
coach Abramovic. Like Vietnam,
we are thinking about a new generation of players as the generation of Minh
Phuong and Tai Em is getting older. I hope that V-League 2011 will discover new
faces for the national team.

Why
don’t you work as the chief organizer of the V-League?

Like in a company, the general director
can’t be in charge of finance. The chief accountant does that job for him. VFF
is strongly decentralizing to improve its management. I will be very busy with
foreign relations as the member of the AFC Executive Board so Mr. Duong Nghiep
Khoi (VFF Vice Secretary General) will be V-League chief organizer.

PV