Half of Vietnam’s topflight V-League clubs have voiced their intention to leave the league and establish their own league in a move to protest the corrupt refereeing and cover-up of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF).
Hanoi ACB club chairman Nguyen Duc Kien gives his speech at the conference in Hanoi on September 8, 2011, Photo: Tuoi Tre
The news was announced by Hanoi ACB club chairman Nguyen Duc Kien at a conference on Thursday in Hanoi to review the 2010-11 football season.
He refused to give the names of the six clubs, except revealing that Hoa Phat Hanoi had submitted its petition to leave V-League to Hanoi Football Federation, a VFF affiliate, on Wednesday.
Vissai Ninh Binh club chairman Hoang Manh Tuong shared Kien’s criticism of VFF and said, “I strongly support the idea to leave V-League and totally agree with what Kien said at the meeting.”
Below is a brief summary of Kien’s speech at the meeting.
“Six clubs told me they would leave V-League and come together to set up their own football league called Super League. This is a result of the growing anger of football investors in the nation over the indifference of VFF and its competition organization board.
It has nothing to do with the demotion of the two clubs Hanoi ACB and Dong Tam Long An, but is a strong and clear expression of disgust and anger from football fans and involved clubs against referees who intentionally favor some teams in exchange for money.
Referees Tran Cong Trong and Nguyen Van Quyet, who are facing suspension for the entire coming season for their misconduct, favored Vicem Hai Phong over Hoa Phat Hanoi and Binh Duong in July and August in such an obvious manner that has drawn sharp protests among football fans.
But VFF has, for a long time, kept repeating the refrain ‘we have no proof.’
For me, personally, VFF’s competition organization board and the national referee council have a lot of issues that need to be urgently dealt with, not the least of which is their dereliction of duty and handling of staff misconduct.
I’ve been too disappointed with VFF.”
Addressing the meeting as representative of the main sponsor Eximbank and deputy VFF chairman, Le Hung Dung announced Eximbank is considering canceling their sponsorship due to rampant corruption.
Dung demanded that VFF impose life suspension penalties against the two referees Trong and Quyet as one of the conditions for Eximbank to continue its sponsoring deal with VFF.
VFF chairman could only respond that, “I fear sponsors and investors will turn their back on Vietnam’s football.”
Source: tuoi tre
