VFF speaks out about the future of coach Philippe Troussier

Sad but still has many bright spots

“The regulations are all in the contract. The important thing is to be patient for Coach Troussier to do it. Supporting Coach Troussier is the important thing. VFF is being very patient because nothing has happened yet. We will even cooperate more with the French coach,” said VFF General Secretary, Head of the Vietnamese delegation at the 2023 Asian Cup. Mr. Duong Nghiep Khoi said.

Coach Troussier's contract with VFF is for 3 years. Currently, the 68-year-old coach has only been working for about 10 months.

Mr. Duong Nghiep Khoi said that the performance of the Vietnamese team received high praise from its opponents at the Asian Cup.

“The President of the Iraqi Football Federation met me and said: It’s only been 2 months, I didn’t think the Vietnamese team would progress like this. We were so lucky to win, your players are very good. The VFF always stands by the head coach, encouraging the team even though the results sometimes don’t go as expected,” Mr. Khoi shared.

Regarding the poor results of the Vietnamese team at the 2023 Asian Cup, Mr. Duong Nghiep Khoi shared: “VFF is very sad that the desire to pass the group stage was not achieved, but we still see bright spots like what was shown against Japan, Iraq and the second half of the match against Indonesia.

After the Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team has learned more lessons. In the next training session, VFF and coach Troussier will focus on the matches in the 2026 World Cup qualifying round 2, focusing on the matches against Indonesia and Iraq. The goal of the Vietnamese team is to enter the 2026 World Cup qualifying round 3."

The VFF General Secretary said that one of the reasons why the Vietnamese team did not play well was because many key players were injured. Coach Troussier himself thought a lot about this issue.

"Mr. Troussier kept Hoang Duc until the last day, talked to his student and affirmed that he could not take any risks. Coach Troussier thought about the future, about the player's life." Mr. Khoi said.

Failed at Asian Cup, Coach Troussier "asks for help"... VFF Referee Board

Coach Philippe hopes that the VFF and VPF Referee Boards need to apply VAR more widely in V-League matches so that Vietnamese players can better understand this modern technology.

At the 2023 Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team is at a disadvantage with VAR. Typically, the foul by central defender Thanh Binh on an Indonesian player led to a penalty, or the goal was not recognized when an Iraqi player scored an own goal, the situation where Khuat Van Khang committed a foul leading to a second yellow card...

This is the result of Vietnamese players getting used to bad habits in the V-League environment. Although the Vietnam National Championship has just applied VAR, the number of stadiums with VAR is very limited.