Individual Analysis on Public Relations
Title: Vietnam National Football Team in 2019 AFC Asian Cup
The Vietnam National Football Team’s fairy-tale run to the quarter finals of the
2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in United Arab Emirates caught the attention of
everyone associated with football throughout the world, amid a rave of admiring plaudits from
critics and supporters alike. This is a remarkable achievement for a country from South East
Asia because the record books will now show that Vietnam is the only country from South East
Asia in the twenty-first century to reach the Quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup twice. The
first time this was achieved was twelve years ago, when they co-hosted the 2007 AFC Asian
Cup with Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Home advantage is a known factor for success in
any sporting event, which made their earlier achievement of reaching the Quarter-finals on
home soil in 2007 appear ordinary. Their current achievement is held in higher regard due to
the fact that it was achieved away from home in unfamiliar conditions. Besides that,
Vietnamese football was recovering from a match fixing scandal which rocked the whole
country in 2014 when Vietnamese football club, Vissai Ninh Binh with as many as thirteen
players, including members of the Vietnam national team admitted to receiving a total amount
of USD 40,000 to fix the AFC Cup match against Malaysian football side, Kelantan. Match
fixing reared its ugly head and Vietnamese football was suffering as top clubs were threatened
with closure due to financial mismanagement. Similar to the ‘Calciopoli’ match-fixing scandal
which rocked Italian football one month before the 2006 FIFA World Cup which Italy won
against the odds, the Vietnam football team have demonstrated incredible resilience and
strength in adversity throughout history to become a dominant football team in Asia. I would
like to begin my analysis on what goes on behind the scenes of the Vietnam football team to
highlight how equally important what happens off the pitch is to what happens on the football
pitch in creating a successful football team. As we know, Public Relations is made up of many
working parts that build a positive image of an organization. It is a general strategy with
multiple approaches. The synergy of multiple approaches in Public Relations are used to
produce a significant effect on the Vietnam football team.
One of the many approaches in Public Relations is International Relations.
International Relations refer to the establishment of a relationship between two or more nations
with a similar interest. In order to understand this, we need to go back in time, delving into the
history books to study the history of Vietnam. Football was introduced to the Vietnamese
people by their French colonial masters in 1896. The first people who played football in Saigon
were French civil servants, merchants and soldiers. Some Vietnamese soldiers then picked it
up and played football when they were not serving in the army. E. Breton, a member of France’s
Athletic Sport Union brought football rules into Vietnam. The first official football match to
be played on Vietnamese soil came in 1905, when a British warship and its football team had
a friendly match against a local team composed of Vietnamese and French players. This is why
Football is known worldwide as the ‘Beautiful Game’. Despite being engaged in a war with
each other, the French and Vietnamese people were able to unite for a game of football. This
proves that football is a sport which transcends international boundaries and racial heritage.
Football has the potential to be a powerful Public Relations based on this historical fact. Just
like how the British introduced football to Malaysians when Malaya as it was known back then
was colonized, the French introduced the Vietnamese to football. We must understand that it
was the Frenchman Jules Rimet who came up with the idea for an international football
tournament which we know as the FIFA World Cup. This beautiful relationship between
France and Vietnam would continue after Vietnam gained independence in 1954 and separated
into North Vietnam and South Vietnam. South Vietnam would finish in fourth place for the
first two editions of the AFC Asian Cup in 1956 and 1960. The establishment of the
International Organization of the Francophonie in 1970 was due to the fact that Vietnam had
notable affiliation with French culture, having been colonized by the French. Even after the
reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1975, France continued to have good relations
with Vietnam. Another important thing to note is that France is considered a superpower in
World Football. They have won the FIFA World Cup twice. The management of the Vietnam
football team understood the importance of having strategic collaborations with football
academies in France which could help Vietnam develop their own football team. The Vietnam
Football Federation (VFF) which governs the Vietnam football team launched a collaboration
with French Football School, JMG Academy in 2007 which saw a lot of young Vietnam
football players join the new academy which was set up by former France player, Jean Marc
Guillou in Pleiku, Vietnam. Two football players who graduated from the academy played
significant roles in helping Vietnam reach the Quarter-finals of the 2019 AFC Cup. This proves
that International partnerships can help foster better understanding between two countries
through strategic alliances which enables them to share technical knowledge and expertise in
the sport of football. Frenchman, Philippe Troussier was appointed in 2018 to be the strategic
adviser of the Vietnam football team to train and develop players with the aim of helping
Vietnam qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2030. We can observe a similar pattern here. The
12-year planning process. The first was planned in 2007 to achieve their goal in 2019. The
second was planned in 2018 to achieve their next goal in 2030. This strategic planning for the
long term is part of a comprehensive public relations approach used by the Vietnam Football
Federation to ensure they continue to remain successful in the future. This goes to show that
success cannot be achieved overnight; it is the accumulation of hard work over the years,
justifying the adage, Rome was not built in a day.
Another country which Vietnam had good International Relations was South Korea.
Since 1992, South Korea and Vietnam have established diplomatic ties which last until today.
South Korea is Vietnam’s third largest trading partner with US$1.3 Billion in two-way trade.
There is also a significant number of South Korean expats living in Vietnam and many tourists
from South Korea visit Vietnam annually due to the fact that Hanoi and Ho Chin Minh City