U17 Vietnam sets Asian record, contributes to FAM being condemned

(NLDO) - U17 Vietnam is the 7th team to participate in the 2026 Asian Finals. The achievement helps Vietnamese football stand shoulder to shoulder with Japan and causes the Malaysian Football Federation to be criticized.

Vietnam U17 finished Group C of the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers with a convincing 4-0 victory over Malaysia, thereby winning the top spot in the group and a ticket to the 2026 AFC U17 Championship finals with 15 points. This achievement not only affirms the position of Vietnamese youth football but also contributes to creating a historic record for the country's football in 2025.

According to statistics, Vietnam has a total of 7 teams qualified to participate in the final round of Asian football tournaments this year, creating the highest number in the continent. The seven teams include: U23 men, U17 men, women's team, U20 women, U17 women, men's futsal and Vietnam women's futsal. Before Vietnam, only Japan had achieved similar impressive achievements, showing the comprehensive and synchronous development of Vietnamese football at many levels.

Notably, all of the above-mentioned Vietnamese football teams finished the qualifying round undefeated. 5/7 of our teams won tickets to the final round of the Asian tournaments without conceding any goals in the qualifying round, including the Vietnam U23 team, Vietnam U17 team, Vietnam women's team, Vietnam U20 women's team and Vietnam U17 women's team.

U17 Vietnam becomes the 7th Vietnamese team to participate in the Asian Finals next year.

While Vietnam continues to make its mark, Malaysian football faces a series of failures at youth levels. Speaking to the New Straits Times , expert Zulakbal Abdul Karim frankly criticized the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) for its lack of determination in reform.

He said that the Asian Cup was originally a World Cup qualifier, but the Malaysian youth teams have failed repeatedly despite having many opportunities. He stressed that the current U17 generation is considered the best in many years, but still cannot win a ticket to the U17 World Cup. "We have failed at all youth levels but have not made any significant adjustments. People are sad when the team fails, then quickly forget. If FAM does not take responsibility, Malaysian football will not be able to move forward," said Mr. Karim.

This expert also firmly commented: "FAM cannot produce players of sufficient quality to compete in the Youth World Cup, so how can they expect the national team to compete in the World Cup. Failure from the beginning and over time has forced them to consider naturalizing foreign-born players."

The criticisms came after Malaysia U17 missed out on the Asian Cup finals for the second consecutive season. In the qualifying round held in Vietnam last November, Malaysia finished second in Group C with 12 points after five matches, ending their journey with a 0-4 defeat to Vietnam U17.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/u17-viet-nam-cham-ky-luc-chau-a-gop-phan-lam-fam-bi-len-an-196251202175700567.htm