"Sportsmanship"

(Baonghean.vn) - The final round of the 2013 National U19 Football Championship - Ton Hoa Sen Cup officially kicked off on March 27th at Pleiku Stadium (Gia Lai province) and Kon Tum Stadium (Kon Tum province).

Eight teams participated in this tournament, including Song Lam Nghe An. This is an annual tournament aimed at improving the skills of young players and strengthening the first-team squads. The quality of the tournament will be judged by football experts and fans alike, but this year, there was a "breakthrough" in the way fans were brought to the stadium in Kon Tum province.

Before the final round, Kon Tum Stadium was the venue for the Group A matches, and the final was scheduled to take place at Pleiku Stadium. A few days before the opening match, the organizing committee announced that the final would be moved to Kon Tum Stadium on April 4th. The reason for this change was to ensure the interests of the sponsor and the live television broadcast schedule. Perhaps because of this, on March 26th (one day before the opening), the Kon Tum Provincial People's Committee issued a document "mobilizing officials and citizens to come to the stadium to watch and cheer for the match." The document also specifically assigned departments, agencies, localities, and military and police units to mobilize at least 800 people for each match. "Units are to arrange and deploy personnel to ensure sufficient numbers, and are responsible for managing their respective forces to ensure stability and order during the event," the document stated.

The news about Kon Tum province issuing a document mobilizing officials and citizens to watch a football match reminded me of the short story "The Spirit of Physical Education" by writer Nguyen Cong Hoan from the 1930s. The work tells the story of a district official organizing a football competition, issuing a decree requiring villagers to come and cheer, regardless of whether they were busy working or sick… These two stories are different, both in context and nature of events, but clearly both evoke laughter and reflection in the reader.

Kon Tum province was eager to organize a truly "spectacular" tournament, while simultaneously encouraging sportsmanship among the people. However, the event of issuing a notice to mobilize spectators for the football match shows that the appeal of domestic tournaments is lacking on the football fields.

Nguyen Nguyen