page_title: Vietnam national football team
section_title: Early history (1896—1954)
hierarchical_section_title: Vietnam national football team / History / Early history (1896—1954)
caption_attribution_description: English: Vietnamese footballers with French colonial officials during the Championat de Cochinchine
context_page_description: The Vietnam national football team represents Vietnam in international football and is controlled by the Vietnam Football Federation, the governing body of football in Vietnam.
  Vietnam has a long history of football, as a result of the sport being introduced by the French in the 19th century. However, due to various conflicts that occurred in the country throughout the 20th century, development of Vietnamese football was significantly hampered during these times.
  While Vietnam was split into North and South Vietnam, two national teams existed and both were controlled by separate governing bodies. After the two countries unified in 1975, the separate governing bodies were combined and renamed to the Vietnam Football Federation.
  Since the 1990s when Vietnam rejoined global world football, the sport soon became part of Vietnamese society and a weapon to fight the negative reputation of the country due to the traumatic Vietnam War and later conflicts. This made the national team become part of Vietnamese nationalism and contributed to passionate support worldwide.
context_section_description: The introduction of football into Vietnam traced its roots in 1896 during the era of colonial French Cochinchina. At the early stage, the sport are only played among French civil servants, merchants and soldiers. The French then encouraged local Vietnamese to played football and several other sports that were introduced to them to divert their interest from politics which resulting the sport being spread to other regions, mostly the northern and central region. On 20 July 1908, the newspaper Southern Luc Tan Van reported the match between two local Vietnamese teams for the first time. A first football guidebook then published in 1925 by a local Vietnamese doctor named Pham Van Tiec to attract the interest among Vietnamese youngsters. By 1928, the Vietnamese had established the Annamite Sports Bureau and in the same year they sent a Vietnamese football team to compete in Singapore. More local football clubs then established in both northern and southern Vietnam although it was not until after the World War II that football clubs in the region started to become more organised. It was the time Vietnam played their first ever international match, against Korea in Saigon which they lost 2–4.
caption: Early Vietnamese football with Vietnamese players and French officials in the Championnat Cochinchine, c. 1922–23
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