FIFA expert: 'Vietnam women's team is capable of entering Asia's top 5'

Vietnam women's team wants to approach the top group in Asia

The Vietnamese women's team has made great strides over the past two decades, winning the SEA Games gold medal eight times, the AFF Cup three times, and the fourth place in the ASIAD once. Or most recently, the achievement of reaching the 2023 World Cup finals, thanks to an impressive performance at the 2022 Asian Cup (ranking fifth in the continent).

From only competing at the Asian level, coach Mai Duc Chung and his team have reached out to the world , facing many women's football powerhouses such as the US, the Netherlands, Portugal, France, Germany, Spain...

Journalist Jere Longman of The New York Times once shared with Thanh Nien Newspaper that Vietnamese women's football has the foundation to reach new heights, however, it needs a suitable strategy to train people, expand the professional football movement and the community...

Vietnam women's team aims for top 5 in Asia

PHOTO: MINH TU

At the launching ceremony of the Vietnam Women's Football Development Strategy for the period 2024 - 2027 (within the framework of the women's football development project sponsored by FIFA and AFC), FIFA women's football expert Simon Toselli expressed his opinion that the Vietnam women's team can realize the goal of entering the top 5 in Asia, in case of having a long-term strategy and ensuring the implementation of that strategy with a broad vision and close cooperation with international organizations.

The strategy for developing Vietnamese women's football sets out specific goals: Comprehensively develop and professionalize women's football from the domestic tournament system, clubs to the national team; Inspire the young generation, arouse passion for women's football; Focus on training female coaches and referees, improve professional quality; Build women's football brand, strengthen communication, attract sponsorship; Expand school football, create opportunities for female students to access football.

This strategy is specified by a system of tasks: developing tournaments, strengthening club capacity, training players, building a professional team environment, implementing sports science , improving governance and management capacity. At the same time, school football programs will be expanded, aiming at equality in football playing opportunities for girls.

FIFA expert Simon Toselli

PHOTO: VFF

Thanh Nien Newspaper asked Ms. Nguyen Thanh Ha, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), in charge of the project, "How will the Vietnamese women's team enter the top 5 in Asia when we have never won against Japan, South Korea, China, Australia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which are currently the 5 strongest "big sisters"?".

Ms. Nguyen Thanh Ha emphasized: "In football, we cannot predict anything. The Vietnamese women's team ranked fifth in the 2022 Asian Cup to win a ticket to the 2023 World Cup. That is an encouraging achievement, that the goal of being in the top 5 in Asia, although difficult, is not far from our reach."

Ambition of Vietnamese women's football

The Vietnam women's football development strategy for the 2024-2027 period sets many important goals, such as the Vietnam women's team needs to be in the top 5 in Asia, the 2026 and 2029 Asian Cup finals as well as the 2031 World Cup finals.

Thanh Nien Newspaper asked: "So what about the 2027 World Cup goal?". VFF leaders explained that depending on the situation, VFF will set a goal for the Vietnamese women's team. Currently, the team is preparing to play the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers with opponents UAE, Maldives and Guam Island (taking place in June this year).

Launching event of Vietnam women's football development strategy

PHOTO: VFF

The women's team will try to get a ticket to the 2026 Asian Cup Finals, then rely on the draw results to calculate the next route. The 2026 Asian Cup is also the tournament that will select Asian representatives to attend the 2027 World Cup, when Asia is allocated 6 slots for the 6 teams with the best results in the Asian Cup.

Regarding the question about the strategy to attract overseas Vietnamese talents to return home to contribute to the country raised by Thanh Nien Newspaper , Ms. Nguyen Thanh Ha affirmed that next season, women's clubs can register 1 overseas Vietnamese player.

"This will be a stepping stone for many Vietnamese-origin talents to contribute to their homeland, thereby having a springboard to play for the Vietnam national team," the VFF representative affirmed.

The strategy also promotes women's football to have 3 clubs meeting the criteria to participate in the Asian Cup 1 by 2028, increase the number of teams participating in the national championship from 8 to 10 teams by 2027, have 1 women's team enter the Asian Cup 1 semi-finals by 2030, and implement basic licensing for professional women's football by 2027.