HA NOI (VNS) — The Viet Nam Football Federation (VFF) has encouraged the national football team to win at least the silver medal at the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore this June.

The Viet Nam Olympic Committee (VOC) organised a conference yesterday in Ha Noi to discuss the key targets for national sports in 2015, which included the tasks set out for the national football team.

All the VFF officials, who took part in the meeting, were surprised at the agenda for the meet. Meanwhile, the football governing body has formulated a plan to rejuvenate the team and is not attaching much importance to its past achievements at the 28th Games.

The VFF has come up with a schedule to train the young players to win SEA Games gold during the next Games in 2017.

"VFF is sticking with its stance of supporting the young team, which might not be successful this year, but should be prepared to win many SEA Games in the future," VFF Chairman Le Hung Dung said.

(A silver medal) is only the VOC's target and the body has not held any prior discussions with the VFF, he pointed out.

Dung, who was voted as deputy chairman of the VOC yesterday, said more meetings should be held between the VFF, the VOC and the National Sports Administration to take a final decision. VFF also needs to hold discussions with National Coach Toshyia Miura, who is in-charge of the team.

The current target for a silver medal is easier to achieve for the team at the moment, compared with the gold they were tasked with winning during the last two SEA Games.

Viet Nam is considered one of the top football teams in the region, but has not won a silver medal at the SEA Games in its history of five decades.

Its best result to date was winning the ASEAN Football Federation Cup in 2008. — VNS