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He was accompanied by FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafström, Vietnam Football Federation President Tran Quoc Tuan and representatives of the ASEAN Football Federation.

The Swiss official spent about 15 minutes inside the site, inspecting individual sections and construction progress and speaking with engineers and workers.

Construction of PVF Stadium in Nghia Tru Commune, Hung Yen Province, began on Oct. 19, 2025 and is scheduled for completion in March 2027, with the Ministry of Public Security as investor and Vinhomes JSC as contractor.

The football-specific venue will have no running track. Its retractable steel dome roof weighs more than 8,600 tons and opens or closes automatically in 12 to 20 minutes.

Infantino said he could already sense the shape of the finished ground and called it a breakthrough in sports infrastructure for Vietnam, one that positions the country to host large-scale matches and events.

Once operational, PVF will be the largest stadium in Vietnam, surpassing the 40,000-seat My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi.

It will be the third venue in Southeast Asia with a retractable roof, after the Singapore National Stadium and Jakarta International Stadium, which opened in 2022 with 82,000 seats.

Its capacity will rank fourth in the region, behind Bukit Jalil in Malaysia, Jakarta International Stadium and Gelora Bung Karno in Indonesia.

Bukit Jalil seats 87,411 after a 2017 renovation, and Gelora Bung Karno was cut to 77,193 for the 2018 Asian Games.

Vingroup also announced plans on Aug. 14 for the 135,000-seat VinFast – Trong Dong Stadium, the centerpiece of the Hung Vuong International Sports Complex south of Hanoi. It will also have an automatic retractable roof and is targeted for completion in July 2027, four months after PVF.

After the site visit, Infantino went to the PVF Youth Football Training Center to meet trainees.

The center is also the base of Hanoi Police FC, represented by coach Mano Polking, who led Thailand to regional titles in 2020 and 2022 before taking the Hanoi job in May 2024.

Infantino arrived in Vietnam on the afternoon of Aug. 26.

After meeting Party General Secretary and President To Lam, he went to My Dinh Stadium for the second leg of the 2026 ASEAN Cup final between Vietnam and Thailand.

The match ended 2-2 before more than 38,000 spectators, giving Vietnam a 4-2 aggregate win and a fourth Southeast Asian title, after 2008, 2018 and 2024.

It was the country’s first successful defense of the trophy.

He witnessed fans pour onto the streets on motorbikes afterward.

Writing on Instagram, Infantino said millions of Vietnamese had celebrated into the night after the team defended its crown, and credited Thailand for fighting bravely in a dramatic second leg.

He called the scenes proof of the values FIFA works toward in supporting member associations and spreading the game.

Infantino first came to Vietnam in February 2018, weeks after the U23 team under coach Park Hang-seo finished runner-up at the AFC U23 Championship.

He congratulated the country on that finish and on its appearances at the 2016 Futsal World Cup and the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Infantino, 56, was elected FIFA president at an extraordinary congress in Zurich on Feb. 26, 2016, defeating Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.

He succeeded Sepp Blatter, who resigned under pressure and was serving a ban, later cut to six years, over a 2 million Swiss franc payment he authorized to then-UEFA President Michel Platini.

He was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.

Infantino also oversaw the World Cup’s expansion to 48 teams for the 2026 edition in Canada, Mexico and the U.S., won by Spain in July.

Infantino announced in Vancouver on April 30 that he will seek a fourth term at the FIFA Congress in Rabat, Morocco, on March 18, 2027.

The AFC, CAF and CONMEBOL have endorsed his re-election. He has continued to court member associations through visits and tournament appearances.

His tenure was recently caught in tension with a plan to sell a 20% stake in the World Cup’s commercial rights to private investors for about $4.2 billion. UEFA threatened to boycott its competitions, forcing FIFA to cancel the plan on July 31.