VPF Vice President Tran Manh Hung resigns for insulting the Deputy Head of the Referee Board

“Mr. Hung has resigned from the position of Vice Chairman of the VPF Board of Directors. All members of the Board highly appreciate this decision and agree to let Mr. Hung resign,” Mr. Tran Anh Tu, Chairman of Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company VPF, announced. “The leak of the recording showing the argument between Mr. Hung and Mr. Hien is regrettable. Mr. Hung’s reaction at that time was just a personal outburst while working at the company. We will continue to work normally, except that we no longer have Mr. Hung’s support.”

The meeting at VPF headquarters today was held at the request of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), to deal with Mr. Hung for his vulgar and threatening words aimed at Deputy Head of the Referee Board Duong Van Hien.

The discord started when VPF sent a letter to VFF to announce that it would stop cooperating with Mr. Hien in the role of supervisor in the 2018 V-League matches, after a series of incidents related to referees. Mr. Hien then threatened to release evidence showing that Mr. Hung had interfered in the work of the Referee Board as well as sent threatening messages to him personally.

The VFF Inspection Board then investigated Mr. Hien’s accusations before holding a conciliation meeting on May 15. However, a heated argument broke out there. The climax was when Mr. Hung unleashed insults and threats against Mr. Hien after the Deputy Head of the Referee Board announced that he had recorded the meeting. A few days later, a recording of the meeting appeared online.