More playgrounds for those who love the "king" sport

(Baonghean) - In 2009, Nguyen The Anh - former goalkeeper of SLNA Club, currently playing for Becamex Binh Duong, returned to Vinh City to invest in building the first cluster of 2 artificial turf fields in the province in the Nghe An Labor Culture House. This started the movement of building artificial turf fields in Vinh City, contributing to creating more playgrounds for football lovers.

A football match on Trang Bui artificial turf field in Ha Huy Tap ward (Vinh city).

Up to now, the whole Vinh City has about 40 football field clusters with 78 fields in operation. An artificial turf field has an area of ​​800 - 1,000m2, according to the standard of a 5 - 7-player football field (often called a mini football field). Around the field there is a net about 7-8m high and a lighting system. The construction cost is from 500 - 800 million VND/field. The advantage of this type of football field is to limit risks and collisions during competition and help young people to practice at any time of the day, both noon and evening.

Mr. Cao Duc Son - a member of Thanh Co Club - one of the first grassroots football clubs in Vinh City, shared: “Although we love football, due to the limited field conditions in the past, we did not have many opportunities to practice. Practicing football on natural grass fields has many potential risks such as rough ground, uneven grass, not only affecting the quality of the match but also easily leading to injuries, and the risk of stepping on sharp objects such as needles, broken glass... Thanks to artificial turf fields, my friends and I can play our favorite sport on a safer field, according to a time frame suitable for the whole team. With an average field rental price of 150,000 to 250,000 VND per hour (depending on the time frame) and a practice frequency of about 2 sessions/week, each member of my club only spends about 100,000 VND/month”.

The emergence of artificial turf fields not only solves the need for physical exercise but also contributes to reducing social evils among local youth. Instead of useless games and gatherings, young people turn to playing soccer more. Every day, the fields are always filled with an exciting atmosphere through the matches of "amateur" players of all ages and backgrounds. Especially, on Saturdays and Sundays, the fields are always fully booked all day and evening. Mr. Nguyen Nam Thang - a bridge engineer living in Hung Binh ward said: "After work, every afternoon we have to go to the field to practice and socialize to improve our health, but we also have to contact the field manager in advance to make a schedule, otherwise it is difficult to get in".

Coming to Trang Bui artificial turf mini football field cluster (Ha Huy Tap ward), we felt the exciting and enthusiastic training atmosphere from the "amateur" players. Mr. Tran Duc Manh - the field manager said: "The club attracts an average of over 4,000 participants per month. During peak times like summer, the field system attracts nearly 6,000 players per month, of which nearly 500 people participate in regular training. The cluster is also a location that local agencies and units often choose to organize internal and friendly football tournaments. During off-peak hours, we often open the door for children to play football for free to encourage them to play football."

Mr. Nguyen Chien Thang - Deputy Director of Vinh City Center for Culture, Information and Sports said: “The development of the artificial turf field model has opened a new playground for those who love the “king” sport, while creating facilities to help the sports training movement in the province develop more and more. Since the appearance of artificial turf fields, more football clubs have been established. If in 2009, the whole city only had a few dozen football clubs, now there are more than 200 clubs, attracting thousands of athletes to practice regularly. Since the artificial turf fields were built, grassroots football tournaments of agencies and units have also been organized more regularly”.

From the development of the artificial turf system and grassroots football clubs, grassroots football tournaments are also held regularly and on a larger scale. In 2011, the Vinh City Artificial Turf Club Football Tournament was born, opening a new playground for football clubs. Next are tournaments such as Vinh League, Larue Beer Cup, Saigon Beer Cup, etc. The matches in these tournaments are very exciting, attracting tens of thousands of spectators to cheer. And from these tournaments, the names of grassroots football clubs have become more known to Vinh City residents such as FC Van Minh, FC Hung Linh, FC Y Lan, FC Cong ty Moi Truong Viet, CLB U38, FC Free, FC Fire, FC BMQ, FC Hieu Giang, Net Viet, etc.

However, there are also shortcomings surrounding the development of the artificial turf system in Vinh City. First of all, the newly built artificial turf fields in Vinh City only ensure the standard of size, but regarding the quality of the field, there are currently no regulations related to this issue. Meanwhile, if the field is bad, it can lead to injuries to the players. In addition, artificial turf fields have led to the emergence of grassroots football clubs, but up to now, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has not yet had a management and supervision mechanism to help the clubs operate in an orderly manner. Therefore, there have been some betting matches between clubs, and some clashes between players of the two clubs have also occurred. This reality requires sports managers to have stricter management mechanisms on the quality and operation of artificial turf fields, so that this is truly a model of healthy socialized sports, further promoting the development of the sports movement.

Minh Quan