Vietnam football needs to be clean to grow
HANOI - Asian Football Confederation chief Peter Velappan urged Vietnam to continue its anti-corruption campaign in football so the sport could grow.
"We are very serious about it because Vietnamese football cannot develop if corruption remains," said Velappan, AFC's general secretary.
"AFC is concerned with such corrupt practises," he told AFP in Hanoi.
Vietnam's football bosses have launched a belated attempt to try to clean up the game which has been plagued by allegations of match fixing.
A large number of referees, coaches and players are now under investigation and police expect to finish a preliminary inquiry in October before deciding whether to hand their findings to judicial authorities.
Several football referees have already handed over bribe money they received and turned themselves into police.
Velappan admitted the problem is not new in Asian football. "We have also had experiences like this in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore. Now, it is Vietnam and China," he said Wednesday.
But football-mad Vietnam deserved an honest league, he said.
State media quoted Velappan as saying AFC is willing to provide Vietnam with referees if the country does not have enough for the next professional league championship.
In 2002, a special police task force investigating the activities of Ho Chi Minh City mafia boss Nam Cam gave the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) a list of about 20 players allegedly implicated in match-fixing.
The VFF subsequently assured the ACF that anyone found guilty would be punished. But very little has been achieved until recently.
"Earlier this year, I came to Vietnam to discuss (this) with VFF, the ministry of sports and police to highlight the problem," Velappan said.
He said the corruption campaign was positive but needed to continue.
"So far the substance (of the campaign) has been very encouraging. I hope that, by the next six months, Vietnamese football will be very clean and very honest."
He sent a similar message to Chinese authorities last summer, warning corruption in its football league could destroy the game there.
Agence France Presse - October 12, 2005.
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