Vietnam sack Goetz

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) said today it had fired German coach Falko Goetz, deemed responsible for the failure of the national team at the Southeast Asian Games last month. "In every country of the world, the coach is responsible for a defeat of the national team," Nguyen Lan Trung, VFF vice-president told AFP, adding that the executive committee voted unanimously for his departure. Despite a promising start to the tournament Vietnam's U-23 national team failed to make the podium at the SEA Games in Indonesia, a disgrace to a country passionate about football but constantly in despair over the poor results of the national team. The VFF General Secretary Tran Quoc Tuan submitted his resignation last week, but it was rejected. According to the newspaper Tuoi Tre on Friday, the VFF would pay Falko Goetz $66,000 to end his two-year contract which he signed in June. Goetz, a 49-year-old former Bayer Leverkusen player, became the eighth foreign coach of Vietnam since 1995 after the departure of Portuguese Henrique Calisto.