*** Welcome to piglix ***

T&T Cup

VFF Cup
Founded August 19, 2004
Number of teams 4
Current champions South Korea South Korea University Selection
Most successful team(s)  Thailand (2 titles)
 Vietnam U-23 (2 titles)
 Uzbekistan U-23 (2 titles)

The Vietnam Football Federation Cup or VFF Cup was an annual football tournament organised in Vietnam. The organisation of the tournament was announced on August 19, 2004, replacing the Independence Cup. and was played from 2004 to 2011 with the Vietnamese Football Federation announcing in 2012 that the competition would no longer be played. Every year the tournament is held at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi. In 2008 the tournament was renamed due to the withdrawal of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development as the main sponsor. Participants are either club teams or national teams, but the Vietnam national team is always a participant.

Ever since the inauguration of the Agribank football tournament in 2004 there has always been controversies surrounding the organisation of the tournament. The most recurring issue is the lack of quality teams partaking in the tournament; for the first edition of the tournament Thailand sent a 'selection team' consisted of local league players unknown to Vietnamese fans, instead of the national team as requested by the Vietnam Football Federation.

Japan and Bahrain both entered their youth teams in the 2005 and 2006 tournaments respectively, and on each occasion the invited teams lacked the quality that was demanded by the organisers. Due to the expressed disappointments of their Vietnamese organisers in 2006, the Bahrain Football Association sent a letter stating their reasons for not sending a full-strength team to the tournament. For the 2007 edition of the Agribank Cup Thailand once again declined an invitation to take part, and Zimbabwe was invited to fill the gap left by Thailand.

Due to the combination of factors, such as the lack of quality teams and the deficiencies of the VFF as the tournament organiser, the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development announced that it would stop sponsoring the tournament in 2008.

The 2012 edition was initially set to be played between hosts VietnamVietnam, TurkmenistanTurkmenistan, North KoreaNorth Korea and IranIran U-22. Iran and North Korea were replaced by LaosLaos and South KoreaSouth Korea University Selection on 10 October. The South Korean team is a selection from the University League, but it doesn't include players from the top 32 universities due to a collision with the 2012 University League Championship schedules. Laos themselves replaced the MaldivesMaldives who initially looked like taking part as replacements for Iran.


...
Wikipedia

...