The U19s football team will be awarded over VND1 billion (US$45,000) for reaching the semi-finals of the U19 Asian Cup and qualifying for U20 World Cup 2017.

During the U19 Asian Cup, Vietnam won 2-1 against North Korea. After drawing against UAE and Iraq and wining against Bahrain, the team reached U19Asian Cup quarter-finals and semi-finals for the first time.

However, the U19s road to glory ended with a 3-0 defeat to Japan in the semi-finals of Asian Cup on October 27. Despite the loss, Vietnam is already qualified for the FIFA U20 World Cup in South Korea in 2017 an unprecedented achievement for the team.

Only four South East Asian countries have been qualified for the U20 World Cup including Indonesia in 1979, Malaysia in 1997, Myanmar in 2015 and Vietnam.

The Vietnam Football Federation awarded the team VND1bn (USD45,000) and the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien provided an additional VND100m.

U19s awarded VND1bn by the VFF

Tran Quoc Tuan, vice chairman of VFF said, "We'll work with coach Hoang Anh Tuan on plans to prepare the team for the World Cup. We'll create the best condition for them to play and gain valuable experiences."

Tuan went on to say that the fact that Vietnam was able to reach the semi-finals showed the good results of the investment into young players. However, this is only the first steps and they still need more investments.

"This generation of players are better physically. Their stamina will get even better with help from foreign experts. The players are called from various clubs in the countries so the training programmes to develop the next generation of players are being expanded to many clubs," he said.

Dtinews