~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
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[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

40 in race for Vietnam football's hot seat

HANOI - Nearly 40 foreign coaches have applied to train Vietnam's national football team even though the state federation has gone through no less than five incumbents in as many years, football bosses said on Tuesday. The vacant position has attracted applicants from major footballing nations including Argentina, England, France and Germany, Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) General Secretary Pham Ngoc Vien said.

The successful applicant will need to keep a tight lip on criticism of Vien and other key officials of the VFF if he is to remain in the job for long. Like many of his predecessors, the last incumbent, Brazilian-born Dutchman Edson "Dido" Silva, was sacked in September after barely nine months in the job for openly criticising the federation.

Since 1996, Vietnam have been through five foreign coaches. Dido was preceded by Briton Colin Murphy, German Karl Heinz Weigang, Brazilian Edson Araujo and Alfred Riedl of Austria. All have complained that the VFF posed an insuperable obstacle to their efforts to promote the game in a football-mad country where interest still far outstrips ability.

Rare victories by the national team can draw hundreds of thousands onto the streets of the big cities, but in this year's Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia, Vietnam failed even to make the final stages.

Agence France Presse - November 7, 2001.