A VFF congress recognizes the contributions of Nghe An football
(Baonghean.vn) - It was not until 11pm on December 8 that the 8th VFF Congress ended and became the longest congress in the history of Vietnamese football, lasting 13 hours. This was the longest and most tiring congress and the most fiercely contested election.
The 8th Congress took place at a rather “unique” time, most likely the first job of VFF officials was to welcome the 2018 AFF Cup Gold Cup, and if it failed it would be due to “the existence of the previous term”. In addition to holding a “closed congress” for the first time, without the participation of the press, it also lasted more than 6 hours as planned, mainly due to the vote counting. A congress that left guests and attendees with many emotions and unnecessary fatigue.
2-member LLC
Starting at 8am, by 9pm, international guests such as Mr. Alexandre Gros - Senior Manager of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA); Mr. Purushottam Kattel - Head of Member Associations and International Relations of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC); Mr. Dato' Sri Azzudin Ahmad - General Secretary of the Southeast Asian Football Confederation, gradually arrived at the airport. They could not wait patiently for another 2 hours, because the flight time had been set in advance.
After the vote counting ended and the results of the key members and the number of executive committee members were announced, the international delegates withdrew, of course after having a few cakes hastily prepared by the organizing committee due to the unexpectedly long congress.
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| New VFF President Le Khanh Hai. Photo VFF |
The 7th term of VFF is considered “full of storms” with the phenomenon of “showing off but not being honest”, trying to attack each other, causing damage to the image of VFF. In the past 2 years, the VFF apparatus has only had 2 people working directly: Vice President of Professional Affairs Tran Quoc Tuan and General Secretary Le Hoai Anh. The media said that VFF is a 2-member LLC, which is not wrong.
Therefore, the Vietnam Football Development Strategy to 2020 and Vision to 2030 is still slow, almost all targets are not achieved. The organization of tournaments, especially professional tournaments, still has many problems that need to be thoroughly resolved. The management mechanism of professional football activities also has some shortcomings that need to be resolved.
However, in terms of finance, the 7th term of VFF has a total revenue of more than 600 billion VND, of which 247 billion VND is from sponsorship contracts, with a surplus of 30 billion VND for the 8th term.
In terms of expertise: the U-23 team won the Asian silver medal, the Vietnamese team reached the final of the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018, the men's futsal team participated in the World Cup, the U-20 men's team won the right to enter the World Cup, the U-15 team won the Southeast Asian championship...
Spectacular election
According to the initial list of candidates for VFF President, there are 4 names: Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan - Vice President of VFF, Mr. Can Van Nghia - Director of My Dinh National Sports Complex, Mr. Le Quy Phuong - former Principal of University of Physical Education and Sports 2 (Ho Chi Minh City) and Mr. Nguyen Cong Khe - former Editor-in-Chief of Thanh Nien Newspaper.
But when Deputy Minister of Culture - Sports - Tourism Le Khanh Hai ran for election, all four withdrew, in which two candidates Tran Quoc Tuan and Can Van Nghia "forced weight" to compete in the "PCT class" and both won.
With 57/69 votes, Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan (current Vice President of VFF Term 7) was re-elected as Vice President of Professional Affairs with an overwhelming number of votes over the other two candidates. In the position of Vice President of Communications, Mr. Cao Van Chong (Director of Communications of Becamex IDC) won 42/69 votes, defeating 4 other candidates to become the winner of the race. Along with Deputy Minister Le Khanh Hai, the candidate for the position of President of VFF, the election of Mr. Tuan and Mr. Chong as Vice Presidents was calculated based on the capacity and diplomatic ability of these personnel.
The most intense race took place for the position of Vice President of Finance when there were 4 candidates running for the election. Among them, 3 candidates running for this position were businessmen who had developed the election outline, namely: Nguyen Hoai Nam (General Director of Berjaya VN Group), Tran Van Lieng (Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Vietnam Cocoa Company), Le Van Thanh (Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Dong Luc Sports Joint Stock Company).
Except for Mr. Can Van Nghia, who has just retired since September 1, 2018, and is currently involved in a scandal when the My Dinh National Sports Complex owes 314 billion VND in land rent that he cannot pay under his tenure as director, the remaining 3 businessmen all have quite elaborate campaign outlines. In particular, businessman Nguyen Hoai Nam - General Director of Berjaya Vietnam Group - shared his dream: "Bringing Vietnamese football to the World Cup".
Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam is known as the husband of the 1995 Sports Beauty Queen and 2011 World Lady Runner-up. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of SaigonBank Berjaya Securities Joint Stock Company, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nghi Tam TPC Village Company Limited (owner of Intercontinental Hanoi Hotel), General Director of Berjaya Long Beach Company Limited, member of the Board of Directors of Berjaya Vietnam Financial Center Company Limited, member of the Board of Directors of Berjaya West Lake Company Limited (owner of Sheraton Hanoi Hotel).
That is why he dared to declare: "If elected, the money will increase by 30% compared to the 7th term." Mr. Doan Nguyen Duc publicly supported the two candidates Le Van Thanh and Nguyen Hoai Nam, emphasizing that the CEO of Berjaya Vietnam meets all the requirements.
In the first round of voting, no one won more than half of the votes, so Mr. Nghia and Mr. Thanh were the two candidates with the highest number of votes to be selected for the second round of voting. In the second round, Mr. Nghia won 36 votes while Mr. Thanh only won 31 votes. Thus, Mr. Nghia became the Vice President of Finance of VFF term 8, to the surprise and disappointment of the public.
At 11pm, after the congress ended, the Executive Committee held its first meeting and approved the nomination of new president Le Khanh Hai to re-elect Mr. Le Hoai Anh as VFF General Secretary.
Recognizing the role of Nghe An football
At the congress, SLNA, along with Hanoi Club, HAGL, PVF, Viettel... were honored for their contributions to the national teams. Currently, the team participating in the AFF Cup 2018 includes Trong Hoang, Ngoc Hai, Van Duc, all of whom are SLNA players. Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh, President of SLNA Club, was re-elected to the VFF Executive Committee, term VIII, recognizing the role and contributions of Nghe An football.
List of key positions of the 8th VFF Congress:
Chairman: Le Khanh Hai
Vice President: Tran Quoc Tuan (professional), Cao Van Chong (communication), Can Van Nghia (finance)
General Secretary: Le Hoai Anh
Head of inspection board: Nguyen Hien Luong
17 executive committee members were elected by the congress: Le Khanh Hai, Tran Quoc Tuan, Can Van Nghia, Cao Van Chong, Tran Anh Tu, Nguyen Quoc Hoi, Le Van Thanh, Pham Ngoc Tuan, Bui Xuan Hoa, Nguyen Hong Thanh, Tran Manh Hung, Pham Thanh Hung, Nguyen Tan Anh, Do Manh Dung, Nguyen Hup, Duong Van Hien, Vo Minh Tri.
