Representative of Thai Football Federation went to Vietnam to apologize for the national flag mistake

On the afternoon of October 29, Vice President of the Football Association of Thailand Adisak Benjasiriwan was present at the Vietnam Football Federation to apologize for the disastrous national flag mistake at the draw ceremony for the 2025 Southeast Asian U19 Futsal Championship.

Vice President of the Football Federation of Thailand Adisak Benjasiriwan (left) and President of the Vietnam Football Federation Tran Quoc Tuan - Photo: VFF

On behalf of the President of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), the FAT delegation led by Vice President Adisak Benjasiriwan had a working session and explained to the leaders of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) about the incident of incorrectly displaying the Vietnamese national flag at the draw ceremony for the 2025 Southeast Asian U16 and U19 Futsal Championship on October 28.

The meeting was witnessed by the General Secretary of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), Mr. Winston Lee.

At the beginning of the working session, FAT Vice President Adisak Benjasiriwan held and read aloud the official apology letter from FAT President to VFF.

In the letter, FAT President Nualphan Lamsam (Madam Pang) expressed deep regret and sent her most sincere apology for the unfortunate incident related to the misplacement of the Vietnamese national flag during the draw ceremony for the 2025 Southeast Asian U19 Men's Futsal Championship.

The FAT President affirmed: "We are fully aware of the seriousness of this error and take full responsibility for the incident that occurred. FAT has immediately taken corrective measures, reviewed and tightened the event organization process, to ensure that similar errors will not recur."

FAT also apologized to the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) and all relevant parties for the incident. They hope that VFF and the Vietnamese people will accept the apology and sympathize with this unintentional mistake - a human mistake, completely without the intention of disrespecting the country of Vietnam.

The FAT representative pledged not to let similar mistakes happen in the future, and expressed his desire to continue to maintain a cooperative relationship and closely coordinate with the VFF in activities to develop football in the Southeast Asian region.

"This is an important lesson for us to be more careful and serious in all organizational processes, in order to maintain the highest standards that AFF expects from us as the host country," said the FAT.

On the VFF side, VFF acknowledged FAT's sincere apology and highly appreciated the proactive, open-minded, and respectful spirit that FAT showed. VFF considered this a serious mistake and affirmed that this is a profound lesson in the preparation and organization of international events, aiming to improve the professionalism of the AFF competition system.

Previously, on the afternoon of October 28, AFF conducted the draw to divide the groups and schedule the matches for the 2025 Southeast Asian U19 Futsal Championship and the 2025 Southeast Asian U16 Futsal Championship in Thailand.

At the drawing ceremony, host country Thailand made an unacceptable mistake when the draw with the name Vietnam was used by the organizing committee with the Chinese flag instead of the Vietnamese flag.

NGOC LE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dai-dien-lien-doan-bong-da-thai-lan-sang-viet-nam-xin-loi-vu-nham-quoc-ky-20251029174526382.htm