Nghe An youth football training center with fear of losing position
(Baonghean.vn) - The Nghe An youth football training center is facing financial difficulties and the fear of losing its position as the leading youth football training center in the country.
"The milk" that nurtures the youth football of Nghe An province
From the past to the present, Nghe An youth football has always made a big splash in the Vietnamese football world. It is considered the club with the longest tradition of training top youth football in the country. The golden generations of Vietnamese football such as Cong Vinh, Van Quyen, Que Ngoc Hai, Van Duc, Xuan Manh... have all grown up from Nghe An youth football training center. It can be said that the development of Vietnamese football has a great contribution from this training center.
In addition, at youth tournaments organized by the Vietnam Football Federation, Song Lam Nghe An is always in the top of the championship winning teams. Especially, U11, U13, U17 Song Lam Nghe An is holding the record for the number of times lifting the Gold Cup at the National U11, U13, U17 Football Tournaments. This has brought spiritual food and pride to many Nghe fans.
And to train talents for national football, as well as to have a position in the youth football village of the whole country, for many years Song Lam Nghe An has always received the support of the government and people of Nghe An province. In addition to providing adequate fields and facilities, every year Song Lam Nghe An is also paid by Nghe An province for the cost of training young players.
It can be affirmed that the funding from Nghe An province is an important factor, helping the “king sport” of Nghe An become famous in the country’s football community. It is the “milk source” to nurture the stars to supply to the national teams.
Struggling with unstable finances
In 2021, after Song Lam Nghe An was transferred to the new sponsor Tan Long, the funding source for youth training was still maintained by Nghe An province. Specifically, each year Nghe An province will provide a budget of approximately 30 billion VND to Nghe An Youth Football Training Center. This unit will be responsible for organizing training for about 215 athletes in 12 classes according to age from U9 to U21.
However, due to some procedural problems, the payment of youth training fees from Nghe An province to Nghe An Youth Football Training Center has become difficult and delayed.
This situation was evident in 2023, when the payment of youth training funds for Song Lam Nghe An was delayed, leading to the fact that by the time of Lunar New Year, athletes had not yet received their allowance payments for the entire year. Previously, to maintain activities at the center, Sponsor Tan Long had advanced Song Lam Nghe An Youth Football Training Center funds to pay for expenses such as food, living expenses, and training for athletes.
Worried about the possibility of further delays, in November 2023, Song Lam Nghe An proactively completed the youth training bidding contract and sent it to the Department of Culture and Sports to submit to the Provincial People's Committee. However, it has now entered the second quarter of 2024, but the Nghe An youth football training center is still living in a state of anxiety, waiting for the province's policy of allocating youth training funding to Song Lam Nghe An.
After 3 months of waiting, recently, Song Lam Nghe An Sports Joint Stock Company sent a dispatch to the People's Committee of Nghe An province with a request that the People's Committee of Nghe An province approve and direct relevant departments to complete the disbursement of funds for youth football training in Nghe An province in 2024, initially from January 1, 2024 to the end of March 2024 so that the company has a source of operating funds, payment of benefits for athletes, coaches as well as other outstanding debts. In case the company does not receive the above funds in April 2024, the activities of the Youth Football Training Center will no longer be able to continue and will be forced to temporarily suspend operations due to lack of funds.
If this happens, it will cause psychological disturbances for athletes and coaches at Song Lam Nghe An. In addition, according to some information, the funding source for the youth training center may be restricted. That will be an obstacle for Song Lam Nghe An's youth teams when participating in youth tournaments at home and abroad.
Specifically, to ensure financial resources, the number of athletes in Song Lam Nghe An youth teams participating in domestic youth football tournaments will be reduced (according to the regulations, each team can register 25 players in each youth tournament, but Song Lam Nghe An only registered 22 players due to insufficient funds to feed, house and train the athletes). In addition, expenses such as organizing friendly matches before the tournament, trains, cars, food and accommodation for athletes will also have to be minimized.
The above difficulties have significantly affected the achievements of Song Lam Nghe An youth teams when participating in tournaments organized by the Vietnam Football Federation.
It is also necessary to add that the financial difficulties of the Song Lam Nghe An youth training center cannot be without Tan Long's responsibility. After all, the young players of Song Lam Nghe An, when trained, will have to serve the first team until they are 25 years old. Therefore, the Vinh Stadium team will not have to pay any transfer fees or bonuses for players when participating in domestic and foreign tournaments. It is clear that the sponsor of Song Lam Nghe An benefits from this issue.
Therefore, in order for Song Lam Nghe An Youth Football Training Center to not have to live in a difficult situation and gradually lose its position, it really needs the cooperation of Nghe An province and Tan Long Sponsor to find solutions to remove the above-mentioned obstacles and difficulties./.
