The World World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) announced on March 4 that it stripped Vietnam of the right to organizethe 2015 World Taekwondo Championships for failure to timely pay a required US$100,000 administrative fee.

Chairman of the Vietnam Taekwondo Federation Truong Ngoc De said the WTF had tentatively approved the application of Ho Chi Minh City to host the 10th world taekwondo champs set for July 2015.

The event would have been one of the largest events ever hosted by Vietnam with more than 5,000 officials, coaches and athletes from 80 countries around the globe participating, De said.

It’s an unfortunate situation after all of the hard work that went into negotiating and securing the approval to have lost it, he added.

No explanation was provided as to why the fee was not paid by the deadline or whether the decision will be appealed.

Previously, Vietnam had successfully organized the Taekwondo World Cup in 2000 and the World Junior Taekwondo Champs in 2006.