If you want to play professional football, you have to invest properly.

(Baonghean) - Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh - General Director, Chairman of SLNA Club talked with Nghe An Newspaper reporter about the study tour to learn about football in Korea and the content of the recent Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Executive Committee Conference.

PV:It is known that you have just had a tour and study in Korea with VFF, how do you feel about the development of football in your country?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:The most obvious thing in Korea is that behind the clubs and football teams are large corporations, such as Samsung Group, Hyundai, etc., so they have enough financial resources for the clubs to operate. All the stadiums of the football teams are of international quality. All of these stadiums are invested in and built by the State. Korean football has a unified approach from the Government to the clubs, with a high national character, so the State and the localities with football teams are very interested and invest properly. They have a very clear view of football, which is to serve the people, to invest in the people.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh - General Director, Chairman of SLNA Club.

Although Korean football is at the top of Asia, it is very receptive. They organize seminars to get opinions from domestic and foreign experts to build a football development strategy suitable for the stature of Korean people, they direct the construction of the playing style from the national team to the youth teams. As for the clubs, they invest heavily in training grounds, functional rooms, physical recovery rooms... according to the most advanced model in the world. They also often send delegations to study in countries with developed football to learn, see what is good, what is best, then they invest; send youth teams to compete both domestically and internationally; invite good experts to study... That shows that they do football in a very professional and systematic way from the bottom up.

Korea National Stadium, which successfully hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Another noteworthy thing is that in Korea, grassroots football and school football are also interested in the Ministry of Education and the Sports Department, so school football develops very strongly. We can see that Korean student football teams come to play exchanges with us, although they are university students, they play equally, even better than our national team. Because school football in Korea is introduced from the first level of education. In general, economic development is accompanied by interest in sports activities, including football. Korea also learns and invests heavily in intelligence and science, competition in their clubs is also very fierce, they are at the top of Asia but want to rise up to conquer the world's top tournaments such as the World Cup.

PV:From the experience in Korea, as a manager of a football club in Vietnam, what did you learn from this trip?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:To make football professional, we must invest, from the team of coaches, doctors, nurses to nutritional conditions. Besides, the training work must also be methodical and systematic, with special attention to school football, and cannot be done spontaneously, randomly, or assigned to the owners, and when they do not like it, they will disband the team like: Hoa Phat Hanoi, Hanoi ACB, Ninh Binh, Saigon Xuan Thanh... In my opinion, in Vietnam today, if we want football to develop, we must combine the State and socialization.

SLNA is the most traditional club in V.League, but Vinh stadium (SLNA's home stadium) does not meet the quality of competition, posing a potential danger to fans.

After this trip, I also gave my comments at the recent Football Federation Executive Committee Conference: You must advise the General Department of Sports and Physical Training so that the Ministry of Culture, Information and Communications can advise the Government, so that the Government has a policy to direct ministries, branches and localities to pay attention to investing in building facilities for clubs, especially quality stadiums, in accordance with AFC competition standards. Unlike Vinh Stadium and many other football stadiums in our country, after 14 years of professionalism, nothing has changed. We must consider investing in building stadiums as public investment, serving the people, and must be determined to do it. As for daily investment for a club to operate, in addition to a main sponsor, it is also necessary for many businesses to join hands, the strength of a collective is always better and more sustainable, with abundant financial resources for investment. Because a business now spends tens of billions of dong a year to invest in a football team, which is a huge amount of money, difficult to bear for many years.

PV:So, in your opinion, what is the reason that after 14 years of professional football, Vietnamese football is basically still standing still?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:In my opinion, the reason is that the Vietnam Football Federation and the General Department of Sports and Physical Training have not fully consulted the State, so they have not received adequate attention. The State sees that professional football is already done, so it does not invest anymore but hands it over to business owners. Therefore, the infrastructure, especially the quality of the stadiums, is very poor. Meanwhile, in Korea, football teams are sponsored by the world's leading corporations but the State still stands behind them, becoming a solid support, while our football teams depend on businesses that have unstable business.

V.League is the highest professional tournament of Vietnamese football, but the facilities serving the tournament, the quality of players... still have many things to discuss.

PV:Right after the tour in Korea, VFF held an Executive Committee Conference. What did the conference focus on, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:Mainly focused on evaluating and commenting on the good and bad points of Vietnamese football in 2015 and the direction and tasks for 2016. According to the assessment at this conference, last year, the youth teams and the national team also made progress but still did not achieve the set goals, so there must be a "revolution" in the near future. For example, we have comprehensively cooperated with the Japan Football Federation, but the selection of coaches is having problems, the women's team coach has terminated his contract, the men's team coach does not have a high consensus among experts. They invited him to be the head coach, but even the Vice President of the VFF still did not accept. Now many experts also believe that it is time for Coach Miura to retire because he is not suitable for us.

Experts no longer trust coach Miura

PV:From a professional perspective, do you think our cooperation with the Japan Football Federation is good, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:In general, Japan does everything well, we have to seriously admit that. But when they choose a coach for us, we have to advise them, not let them decide. Because they think our football is still low, so they only choose coaches with average skills. But I think differently, if we are low, we must have a good coach, so that when we get a good result, but if we are low and do not have a good coach, it will be very difficult to get good results. A good coach is not only good for the team but also for the whole football.

PV:At the recent Federation Executive Committee Conference, VFF said that in the near future, clubs participating in V.League will receive additional sponsorship. So what is the truth, sir?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:There is but not much.

PV:So is the financial resource for SLNA Club's activities in preparation for the new 2016 season stable?

Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh:In the current difficult economic situation, SLNA still has to depend heavily on sponsors. This season, they still accompany the team, which is a great effort.

PV:Thank you!

Duc Chuyen(Perform)