Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Nguyen Trong Hy mentioned youth training again, citing it as one of the targets of the nation in the future to brace up national football. Yet, the issue has actually been named long ago this decade.
Hy gave Tuoi Tre an interview on Wednesday.
Do you think that the early exit of Vietnam at this month’s Suzuki Cup is rooted from sloppy youth training?
That’s right. Youth training has long relied on state budget. It is rooted from the lack of legal binding in protecting lawful rights of individual investors for players’ transfer after their graduation.
Thus, it has discouraged individuals from investing in football training.
We are now focusing on building up such regulations to ensure fair achievements for individual investors in the field.
It seems that club owners now prefer buying talents to training youths for years
They do want to join in youth training but as I said their rights are not well observed now.
It requires great sum of money to build nearly perfect school as Aspire Academy in Qatar or Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal Football Academy in Vietnam’s Gia Lai Province.
Can you brief youth training in Vietnam during the past years?
If compared it to a tree, we can cover only the top of a tree by organizing tournaments for youth national teams to compete. This year, we set up 7 teams.
As for the root of a tree or daily professional training, clubs take care about it and get annually paid from the state budget.
Many provincial clubs have ignored youth training system. The Mekong Delta area with 12 provinces has only 3 youth teams.
Vietnam has 14 top-flight V-League clubs and 14 others playing at First Division but in total, we have only 17 youth teams competing at national youth leagues.
What should we do to change it?
In two or three years, the VFF will have sufficient fund -- from broadcasting copyrights and budget and we will re-establish a national U-19 league that all clubs at the top two leagues must send their young teams to partake.
Weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan won the gold medal in the boys’ 56kg category as the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore opened on Sunday.