Despite the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second Phuc Tin Football Tournament was still held with the participation of twelve teams. To promote physical exercise and team building, FV Hospital entered its own football team in the tournament with 20 players, including doctors, nurses and FV staff.

This year’s Phuc Tin Football Tournament was held on the 3rd of October in Can Tho City. From Ho Chi Minh City, football teams included FV Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital, and Phuc Tin Medical. The remaining teams came from medical units in the South West of Vietnam. The squads were divided into four groups, and competed in a round robin contest to choose the four best who went on to the semi-finals.

For the organising and running of the tournament, due to COVID-19, certain measures were needed to be put in place which changed the whole atmosphere of the event. As Mr Nguyen Phan Dao, Night Duty Manager of FV Hospital and FV’s football team’s captain shared “Last year all the hospitals had cheerleading teams to support them, the atmosphere on the field was more bustling and exciting. Despite this, this year everyone also tried their best to compete.” In addition, the bad weather on the day also affected the competition schedule as well as the quality of the football pitch. This was a big obstacle for the representative teams from Ho Chi Minh City, including FV Hospital.

Although FV’s team trained hard and prepared well, they did not manage to make it to the semi-finals on this occasion. “While not getting to the next round was a blow to the team, through each tournament, we met with many colleagues from many places and had a great experience” shared the captain of FV’s football team, Mr Phan Dao.

FV’s football club is a part of the I Love FV Programme, which aims to create clubs for staff to enjoy activities they love with FV colleagues and help increase team spirit and team building within the hospital. In addition to FV’s football club, the I Love FV Programme also holds activities which focus on cooking, dance, yoga, qigong, among others, which are all very popular with FV staff.