Thanh Hoa Football: "It's hard to get money into the house"
(Baonghean.vn) - The main sponsor "collected" funds before suddenly leaving Thanh Hoa football, causing coach Duc Thang and his team to face many difficulties before arriving at Vinh stadium.
Previously, on March 22, 2019, Thanh Hoa Club received Official Letter No. 113/CV-VPF from VPF requesting that before 12:00 on March 28, 2019, Thanh Hoa Club must pay the full amount of VND 1.17 billion in share transfer fee according to the tournament charter to VPF Company. Otherwise, they will not have the legal status to continue participating in the 2019 National Professional Football Season.
When the sponsor leaves
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| Thanh Hoa Club had to borrow 3.6 billion VND, but still did not have money to pay salaries, accommodation, competition expenses of players and other activities in February and March 2019. Photo: VPF |
The safe was empty, so the leaders of Thanh Hoa Football Club had no choice but to send a letter asking for a delay until March 28, 2019, which was accepted by VPF. In the situation of "empty garden, empty house", calling for help in many ways but no one answered, on March 25, 2019, Mr. Tran Quoc Hung, Chairman of Thanh Hoa Football Club, had to sign an urgent letter requesting the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee to request additional budget for the activities of Thanh Hoa Football Club.
In the document "implore"The Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Culture - Sports & Tourism, the Department of Finance and the State Treasury of Thanh Hoa province, the Club would like to request funding from investment in youth football training and support from the state budget for the competition activities of the Thanh Hoa Football Team.
The document stated: "As of March 25, 2019, the club had to borrow 3.6 billion VND from outside, but still did not have money to pay salaries, accommodation, competition expenses of players and other activities in February and March 2019. In particular, the club needs nearly 14 billion VND to pay immediately before March 28, 2019 as well as 1.17 billion VND for the transfer of shares according to the National Football Championship charter to Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF)".
The official dispatch has been sent for a long time but the leaders of Thanh Hoa province have not made any move to handle the crisis that their hometown team is facing. On March 28, VPF leaders had to go directly to Thanh Hoa to work with the club on this issue. If the problem is not resolved, Thanh Hoa will not be able to continue participating in V.League 2019. And this is something that the club's leadership as well as Thanh Hoa fans do not want.
Rectified and still waiting
But "before the trouble was over, the cheeks were already swollen", immediately Thanh Hoa Football Club LLC received a document signed by Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Pham Dang Quyen, requesting to rectify the situation of Thanh Hoa Football Club LLC arbitrarily issuing documents beyond its authority.
Accordingly, the content that the Provincial People's Committee sent to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Department of Finance; Department of Planning and Investment; Thanh Hoa Football Federation; and at the same time sent a report to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee with the following contents: requesting the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Thanh Hoa Football Federation to rectify, remind and strictly control, not to let the One Member Co., Ltd. - Thanh Hoa Football Club arbitrarily issue documents beyond the level.
The document emphasizes: "Recommendations and proposals related to the mechanism and policies for training and developing Thanh Hoa Football must be reported and considered according to regulations: The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is the sole unit responsible for reporting, recommending and proposing issues related to the mechanism and policies for training and developing Thanh Hoa Football. If there is still a case of sending documents beyond the authority, the Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Chairman of the Thanh Hoa Football Federation must be responsible to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.".
Regarding budget support for the football team, the Vice Chairman of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Finance, the Department of Planning and Investment and related units, based on current legal regulations, to study the proposal of Thanh Hoa Football Club - One Member Co., Ltd. to urgently advise, propose specific opinions and report to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee before April 12, 2019.
Entangled in the law
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| Thanh Hoa players are facing the worry of “food-rice-clothes-money”. Photo: VPF |
That means that before leaving for Vinh to compete with SLNA in round 5 of V.League 2019, Thanh Hoa players still do not know exactly what the provincial leaders' decision will be.
According to our own research, the problem is not that the locality does not have enough funds to provide for the club. According to the Budget Law, it is not feasible for Thanh Hoa Football Club to request additional budget and advance funds for youth football training to cover the activities of the professional football team.
During the 2017 audit of Thanh Hoa province’s local budget, the State Audit Office issued a document recommending that Thanh Hoa province not use its budget to fund professional football teams. Thanh Hoa Football Club is facing the risk of not being able to continue participating in V.League 2019 due to lack of funds to pay debts and maintain operations.
