Sell yourself to the devil!
(Baonghean) - Within just a few months, Vietnamese football has witnessed two consecutive match-fixing cases involving a large number of young players. While the press has not yet dried up the ink on the match-fixing case of international matches in the AFC Cup by V.Ninh Binh players, at the V.League playground, some Dong Nai Club players have "sold themselves to the devil", acting out "red and black" to deceive fans...
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| Dong Nai players (red shirts) in the first leg of V.League 2014 at Vinh Stadium. |
The players who participated in match-fixing in the recent matches are mostly skilled and prestigious players in the team, they are the "favorites" of the coach and the owner, but for dirty money they are willing to sell everything. The sentences and lessons about the price paid for players who participated in football betting in the past are not enough to warn players who have a gambling spirit and disregard the law. This shows that they are not afraid and do not learn the lesson from the incident at the 2005 SEA Games, and most recently V. Ninh Binh at the 2014 AFC Cup!
In the current difficult situation of football teams, Dong Nai Club is not financially abundant, but the salary and bonus of players are still fully met by the team leaders. The signing bonus for each domestic player is 300 - 400 million VND/season, salary from 20 - 25 million VND/month, each winning match the club rewards 400 - 500 million VND, draw 100 - 200 million VND... It turns out that each player earns no less than 700 million VND per season, compared to the social level, this is the dream income of many people. However, for players who are addicted to gambling, it seems that the amount of money is still too small compared to their greed, because each match "sells themselves to the devil" they can pocket hundreds of millions of VND!
The form of betting of football players today is very sophisticated and complicated. They do not need to go through the coaching staff and do not need to connect with the team they are about to play, but they connect with outside bettors and then arrange the score by themselves by deliberately missing shots, committing fouls to give the opponent a penalty or kicking the ball into their own net... Along with that, the popularization of the internet and electronic devices today makes it easier for players with gambling interests to operate and easily make illegal profits.
Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh - Member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Football Federation, Chairman of SLNA Football Club said: "Gambling and betting is a phenomenon condemned by the whole society, especially in football, because in addition to betting, it also deceives the audience, fans, and distorts the results of a match. To clean up the Vietnamese football environment, the Federation and football teams are currently taking drastic measures to eliminate players who violate the law from the football environment. My point of view is to fight to the end, persistently, and there must be participation from the whole society, because the current betting environment is very diverse and popular, from online to on the field."
Mr. Thanh also expressed shock at the fact that Dong Nai players were involved in gambling: “Recently, the police have cracked down on many huge gambling cases, including football betting during the 2014 World Cup. In the country, the recent V.Ninh Binh case is a huge lesson. Players who commit crimes are condemned by society and imprisoned, their families are broken, their parents are in pain... yet some Dong Nai Club players still recklessly violate the law, so they really have mental problems!”
The Nghe An football team has also been notorious and criticized for its "smelly" matches. Some people have been targeted and even disciplined by the club, their contracts have been terminated for being involved in gambling. In the famous match-fixing cases in V.League 2001 or SEA Games 2005, the Nghe An football team had someone put into the "Juve striped shirt team" by the authorities for a while... Learning from those lessons, in the betting case in V.Ninh Binh, although "living together" with the entire team that was "indicted", striker Van Quyen still kept himself, or in recent "sensitive" matches, SLNA has dispelled suspicions with determined efforts to compete to bring positive results for the team. But unfortunately, the match-fixing case of Dong Nai Club players still involves a player who grew up from SLNA's training center, even though this player is not currently on SLNA's payroll. And people were also surprised when the score of the match on July 6, 2014 between Dong Nai and SLNA also had a "2-goal difference" score, similar to the score difference that Dong Nai players made on Cam Pha field!?
Currently, the Vietnam Football Federation is coordinating with C45 to continue to expand the investigation of the football betting case nationwide. The country's football fans are anxiously watching, not knowing what more embarrassing and terrible truths will be exposed?! But surely we all agree that it is better to suffer a little while to clean up the "boils" of our country's football, than to have the terrible deception continue forever, causing our "lowland" football to increasingly regress.
Duc Dung