The difficult battle to avoid relegation to V-League

Most likely, we don’t need to wait until the final round of V-League 2018, when the host XSKT Can Tho meets Nam Dinh, to know who will be relegated, as there are teams that “give up their hands” before the end of the season. Tay Do team even had only 14 players practicing at one point, not enough to split the team in half. Thanh Nam team of coach Nguyen Van Sy is not doing any better as all team members have planned to strike and skip practice.

Only with food can one practice religion.

Nam Dinh players were once invincible warriors in the First Division. Photo: Internet

Some Nam Dinh players said that they and the coaching staff have not received their salaries for the past 2 months. Currently, Nam Dinh province has not been able to disburse the 20 billion VND as announced at the beginning of the season to Nam Dinh Football Joint Stock Company, leading to the current salary arrears situation. Of course, because of that, the lives of Nam Dinh players have encountered many difficulties, some players have even had to borrow money from outside to support their wives and children and cover their daily living expenses.

Coach Van Sy shared: "I'm not talking about bonuses, but at least there must be salaries for the players. They also have families, relatives, and many things to pay for. If this situation continues, it will greatly affect training. I don't understand how the leaders work. If you don't want to continue, just say so. We are also ready to stop." If Nam Dinh does not soon resolve salaries for the coaching staff and players, the fact that Nam Dinh football will disband in the first year of returning to V-League (after 8 years of relegation) will become a reality.

The afternoon practice session of the XSKT Can Tho team on August 27 was quite heavy when only about 14 players were present on the field. After a few minutes of activities, Coach Vu Quang Bao let the players do some warm-up exercises, mainly running after the training tour in Ho Chi Minh City. When the practice session started, goalkeeper To Vinh Loi, player Nguyen Tang Tuan and some players quietly left the field for unknown reasons.

According to the contract agreement, at the end of the first phase of the 2018 V-League season, Can Tho Lottery Club must pay 50% of the transfer "bribe" fee, the remaining amount will be paid at the beginning of the second phase. However, currently, many players have only received from 30% to 40% of the amount of the first phase. Therefore, the 10 players above said that Can Tho Lottery Club had violated the contract with them. The amount of this "bribe" debt was revealed by one of the 10 players to be nearly 4 billion VND (in which some players were owed about 400 million VND).

Many players of XSKT Can Tho are not enthusiastic about practicing. Photo: Internet

The leaders of XSKT Can Tho decided to bring Mr. Vu Quang Bao to the head coach position to replace Mr. Dinh Hong Vinh who left. Mr. Vu Quang Bao has not directly directed any matches but has encountered collective "strikebacks". The players of Tay Do said that the leaders of Can Tho Football Club have promised many times to resolve the above problem, but then broke their promise. The players are worried that if they cannot get their money back before the end of V-League 2018, they will easily fall into the situation of "climbing a ladder to ask God". XSKT Can Tho is currently ranked 14th, at the bottom of the table, while there are only 6 rounds left to end the season, with the unstable mentality of the team like this, XSKT Can Tho will hardly be able to stay in the league.

The “first” problem

Looking at the preparations from the beginning of the season, people feel that Nam Dinh Club is not ready for the return to V-League. It was only close to the opening day that they established a joint stock company to manage the team as required by the tournament organizers. Local sports leaders are also not familiar with the concept of "transfer bribes" as is customary in professional football.

Meanwhile, finding enough resources to maintain the activities of Can Tho Lottery Club is beyond the capacity of the leaders here. It is not until now that the Tay Do football team has encountered the situation of "eating on the fly", owing salaries, bonuses and signing-on fees to players. Even FLC Thanh Hoa, the partner who once lent them players, had to send a letter demanding payment.

Obviously, this is a problem beyond the control of coach Nguyen Van Sy (Nam Dinh) and new coach Vu Quang Bao (XSKT Can Tho). The V-League relegation battle has now become a race to find funding rather than matches on the field.