Sitting in Vinh yard, reading GUARDIAN

(Baonghean) - On October 17, the prestigious British daily Guardian published an article titled “Football in Hanoi, where Premier League clubs overwhelm Vietnamese champions” exposing the dark side of Vietnamese football. Journalist Thomas Barrett’s perspective is not new, but clearly, the Guardian has exposed the face of the V-League after 16 years of operation.

The Guardian has assessed the face of Vietnamese football quite closely. Photo: Internet

From the UK, journalist Thomas Barrett came to Vietnam and directly watched the match between Hanoi T&T and Thanh Hoa at Hang Day Stadium in round 26 (September 18). The first time he came to the stadium to watch V-League, Thomas Barrett felt the frustration of the fans: “When I told a friend that I was going to watch Hanoi T&T's match, he responded with a snort of derision. A bartender laughed at me. Vietnam is a football-crazy country, but if you ask a fan which local club he supports, he will just blush.”

Thomas Barrett recounts his experience at Hang Day Stadium: “When I walked into Hang Day Stadium in Hanoi, there were chickens squawking loudly as they avoided the cool cars rushing by on the road. This place was like a different world from the outside of Old Trafford or Emirates with the old French pastel yellow walls that were quite degraded and peeling.” Funny and bitter!

He described the scene before the match: “The spectators flooded into the stadium like a school of fish and ticket sellers waved papers in the air everywhere… Hanoi T&T were the favorites and there was a clearly tense atmosphere among the fans, but the stadium was not full.”

Obviously, what Thomas Barrett witnessed at Hang Day Stadium is also the common situation of football stadiums in Vietnam, and if he had come to Vinh Stadium at the end of the season, he would have encountered an even more desolate scene. Most professional football clubs do not have their own stadiums, and their football fields are degraded. Simply because the clubs operate on money from the budget, or from the pockets of their owners (or both), they do not pay much attention to revenue from selling souvenirs or tickets.

Thomas Barrett is a foreign journalist, so he is full of concerns: Why is there so little audience at the stadium in the match that is decisive for the championship of HN.T&T? Why is the stadium security so lax in allowing fans to throw flares at the referee and players? And the level of foreign players... "In the first minutes, Gonzalo dominated the one-on-one situations. But he controlled the ball clumsily and failed to kick the ball before falling to the ground." If Thomas Barrett had known that Gonzalo was one of the best foreign players of HN.T&T and V.League or was present at Vinh stadium to watch Odat play, the article would have been much more vivid.

According to Barrett, Vietnam is a country where people are very passionate about football. Nghe An fans are such an address. But then fans gradually lost interest in V.League: "The owner of the AirBnb room I rented in Ho Chi Minh City woke up very early to cheer for Man United when they met Southampton and watched Zlatan Ibrahimovic score his first Premier League goal. A roommate of his is an Arsenal fan and was upset when his team drew 0-0 with Leicester. Their Premier League football fever seems to never cool down." I know, this season SLNA only has away fans, they are Nghe An fans far from home, while in Vinh there are only a few people.

It is a shame that Barrett said that V.League is one of the three most scandalous tournaments in the world with famous match-fixing cases, internal scandals of football teams or referee trading. Dozens of players, coaches and referees have been exposed for their crimes and many of them are still in prison. Barrett also knows about the case of Vissai Ninh Binh Club proactively sending a petition to the Vietnam Football Federation to denounce 13 players for match-fixing. And he knows that since 2000, dozens of players, coaches and referees have been imprisoned for cheating.

Obviously, journalist Thomas Barrett did not come to Vietnam to investigate the negative aspects of the football field, he was still fair when mentioning the impressive performance of young player Quang Hai of HN.T&T. Mr. Barrett concluded: "The population here increases by an average of 1 million people every year. There is too much untapped potential for the V-League football tournament". What the Guardian published will certainly be noticed by FIFA and the VFF, even if it does not want to, cannot "keep quiet and take the money" forever! Reading the Guardian, many club officials will have the opportunity to look back at themselves, why things are so bad! As for me, sitting at Vinh Stadium, reading the Guardian, I feel even sadder.

N@T