Vietnamese football and the 'ghost' of negativity

Surely many people still have not forgotten the negative cases, match-fixing in football since the late 1990s involving 5-6 football teams, including the Ho Chi Minh City Police team, U23 Vietnam at SEA Games 23 (Bacolod, Philippines), the 2005 referee scandal or the negative case of Ninh Binh Club at AFC Cup 2014.

Those cases all left very serious consequences for the people involved, including permanent bans from playing and a football scene with many unhealed “scars” and lost trust. Fans and teammates are in pain, but the pain of the families and relatives of the disciplined players is even greater.

Since 2019, Vietnamese football has once again been put in a state of alarm when player Nguyen Van Quan of XSKT Can Tho Club kicked the ball straight into his own net in the First Division, surprising his teammates, opponents and television viewers.

Considering the seriousness of this incident, the VFF Disciplinary Board has decided to fine Nguyen Van Quan (XSKT Can Tho) VND20 million and suspend him from playing until the end of the first leg of the 2019 National First Division for kicking the ball into his own net. As for the former captain of Can Tho, he said it was an accident and a technical error but was still disciplined.

Negative "ghosts" can attack players at any time, even professional players. Photo: ST

However, just over 20 days later, the Vietnam Football Federation's appeals committee decided to reduce the disciplinary sentence for player Nguyen Van Quan - captain of XSKT Can Tho, agreeing to reduce the number of matches Van Quan was banned from playing from 11 to 7. The fine of 20 million VND remained the same.

Obviously, the decisions from the VFF agencies are not convincing in terms of sentencing and sentence reduction. Firstly, if the behavior is negative, it needs to be clarified and severely punished by the VFF, and the punishment and decision to reduce the sentence do not satisfy public opinion. On the contrary, if Nguyen Van Quan is clean, this player needs to be proven innocent, and the fact that he still has to receive a disciplinary sentence is an injustice.

Also in 2019, young Dong Thap players were discovered to have participated in betting in the 1-1 draw with Vinh Long in the qualifying round of Group C at the 2019 National U21 Championship in June. The results of the police investigation showed that out of 11 starting players, 9 participated in betting along with 2 other players in the reserve team. Not only that, young Dong Thap players also played in two more betting matches while playing for Gia Dinh Club in the 2019 Second Division.

In 2020, the Vietnam Football Federation continued to send the file of the Dak Lak - Binh Dinh match at the 2020 National U19 tournament to the police to investigate suspicions of match-fixing. In the match at Pleiku Stadium, Binh Dinh players played unusually, allowing Dak Lak to easily score 6 goals. In the extra time, Dak Lak goalkeeper Y Eli Niê sent the ball straight to the opponent's striker's feet, allowing Binh Dinh's striker to reduce the gap to 2-6.

Goalkeeper Y Eli Nie is suspended on suspicion of match-fixing. Photo: ST

On March 7, 2020, the VFF Disciplinary Committee issued a disciplinary decision against those involved in this incident. There were 6 individuals directly responsible, the remaining decision was to cancel the 6-2 result of U19 Dak Lak against U19 Binh Dinh. Goalkeeper Y Eli Niê - former goalkeeper of U23 Vietnam was the only player of Dak Lak to be fined 5 million VND and banned from playing 2 matches.

Youth tournaments such as the U19 and U21 national tournaments are fraught with many negative risks. Particularly in the U19 National Tournament, this is the second consecutive year that this tournament has had problems and suspicions of match-fixing. Obviously, clubs cannot be complacent in the face of such consecutive incidents. The specter of negativity in football is lurking and can attack young players who are restless and lack a sense of professionalism at any time.

Recently, coach Hoang Anh Tuan has just spoken out about the failure at the U19 Southeast Asia tournament, he did not deny his professional and managerial responsibilities. However, the fact that 9 players in the U18 Vietnam team violated discipline may be not very bright news for the future of Vietnamese football.

The U18 Vietnam players are the future of Vietnamese football. Photo: VFF

In another development, Sportradar (a partner of VFF and VPF) has repeatedly sent warnings about some matches with negative signs in 2019 based on unusual data collected from bookmakers. The worrying thing is that these matches are in the scope of youth tournaments and the files were immediately sent to the investigation agency.

For domestic national championships, there is a current problem of referee supervision. When referees come to the football field to perform their duties, local clubs have to pay for accommodation and transportation even though they have paid 500 million VND in tournament participation fees. This problem has existed for decades and this is an unreasonable thing, which can easily lead to negative consequences.

Remember, we are aiming for a clean and attractive National Championship, from which we aim to participate in the 2026 World Cup and most recently, the U20 World Cup 2021 for youth football. The issue of nurturing talents is not only about football training but also about culture and ethics, which are extremely important.

Currently, players at clubs are monitored regularly and more or less by local police. However, no matter how severe the penalties and sanctions are, how strong the VFF and the tournament organizers are, the most important thing is that the players' sense of professionalism and ethics needs to be taken into account by the teams. If even the teams do not thoroughly understand, set an example and educate the players to maintain the purity and noble spirit of sports, the consequences will be very unpredictable.

Vietnamese football and tactical 'revolutions'

(Baonghean.vn) - Along with the development of world football, Vietnamese football in general and the national team also have a path of change, "evolution" of models and tactical diagrams that are relatively clear, although it may be slower at each time. However, with 3-4-3 and its variations, Coach Park Hang-seo is helping us take pioneering steps.