Long An fire head coach Vital following poor start

Dong Tam Long An fired Portuguese coach Francisco Vital on Monday following a poor start to the season.

Long An have just seven points from eight games, and are one place off the bottom of the V-League.

Assistant coach Ngo Quang Sang will take charge of the game against Xuan Thanh Sai Gon this weekend.

Former manager Marcelo Javier Zuleta is favourite to replace Vidal.

Three months ago, the Argentinean was fired because of a disagreement with the club's owners regarding signing foreign players.

Under Zuleta, Long An won the the Binh Duong Television International Football Tournament in 2011 and were runners-up in the Navibank Cup.

Bac Ninh to host women's volleyball tournament

The International Women's Volleyball Tournament, LienVietPostBank Cup, is scheduled to kick off on May 19 and continue until May 26 in the northern province of Bac Ninh.

The annual tournament will attract the participation of four strong domestic teams and four foreign teams.

They will be divided into two groups. Group A consists of China's Shandong, Sri Lanka, VTV Binh Dien-Long An and LienVietPostBank, while Group B includes Vietinbank, Vietsopetro, China's Sichuan and Thailand.

Teams will compete in a round-robin tournament to determine the top four teams that will play in the semi-finals.

This year's event has prizes worth a total of US$40,000 up for grabs. The winner will get a cash prize of $15,000, while the runner up will receive $10,000 and third place will walk away with $6,000.

In addition, the event's organisers will give seven individual awards with a total cash value of $2,000.

This is third consecutive time LienVietPostBank has sponsored the event, which will be televised live on the ThethaoTV channel.

"The tournament will give Vietnamese women's volleyballers a chance to hone their skills by competing with foreign teams and it also helps popularise Vietnamese people and the country to the world," said Tran Duc Phan, general secretary of the Viet Nam Volleyball Federation, at a press briefing yesterday, May 14.

Volleyball team finds sponsor

The PetroVietnam Low Pressure Gas Distribution Joint Stock Company (PVGAS D) has agreed a VND1 billion (US$47,600) sponsorship deal with the national beach volleyball team.

The signing ceremony between the Viet Nam Volleyball Federation (VVF) and PVGAS D took place in the National Sports Administration.

It is the fourth time the company has funded the team. As part of the deal some of the money will be spent on a series of national beach volleyball events.

Tran Duc Phan, the VVF's general secretary said that the sponsorship money will be used to organise domestic beach volleyball tours, support salaries for players and expenditure for teams taking part in international events. Training programmes for talented young players will also be organised with the financial support.

Women start training in Jordan

The Viet Nam women's football team arrived in Jordan on Monday, May 13, to train in preparation for the Asian Cup qualifier.

The squad, who are in Group C, will also have two friendly matches with Jordan's national team before flying to Bahrain to face Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan and the host.

The four-day tournament will start on May 22.

Midfielder out with broken leg

Becamex Binh Duong midfielder Duc Tai will be out of action for several months after breaking a leg during a match against Dong Nai on Sunday.

Second-half substitute Tai went down during a Dong Nai attack, 20 minutes after going on to the field.

VNN/VNS