Twenty players of the U16 Vietnamese football team will compete at the U16 Southeast Asian Football Championships in Laos from July 5-21.

About half of them are from Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club and the rests from clubs in Hanoi, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Dong Thap, Khanh Hoa and Ha Tinh.

The team, coached by former The Cong Football Club defender Nguyen Hai Bien, will be in group B with Singapore, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar.

After the event, it will continue training to prepare for the U16 Asian Football Championships’ qualifying round scheduled to take place in Laos.

The team will be in group F with Japan, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Laos and Cambodia.

The Vietnamese athletic team has arrived in Kobe, Japan on July 4 to attend the Asian Athletics Championships.

Vietnamese top runner Vu Thi Huong who was injured in her training in Europe will not take part in the event.

Her team mate Truong Thanh Hang has become the country’s only hope of successful performance to qualify for the 2010 London Olympics.

In the last Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, Huong grabbed two silver medals for the Vietnamese team in the 800m and 1500m events.