Top Vietnam Football Federation official resigns over blunders
HANOI - The secretary-general of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Pham Ngoc Vien has resigned following a series of contractual blunders with foreign coaches, state media said. Citing his mistakes in the job, Vien handed in his resignation on Friday, and in doing so became the first VFF secretary-general to quit his post.
The resignation was approved by sports minister Nguyen Danh Thai and VFF president Mai Liem Truc, but the federation's executive board will have the final say at its meeting on January 20, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said. It said that Vien, who was appointed to the post in October 1997, made several mistakes during his term, including hiring Brazilian coach Edson Tavares last year as national team coach. Tavares quit following Vietnam's humiliating first round exit last month from the Tiger Cup, Southeast Asia's premier international football tournament. Vietnam have never before failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition since it was launched in 1996.
Vien's biggest mistake, however, was to fire Frenchman Christian Letard before his contract as coach of Vietnam's under-23 team expired, VNA said. The VFF was fined 197,000 dollars by the sports court of football's governing body FIFA last month for only paying Letard five months of his 18-month salary after they sacked him in August 2002 five months into the job.Football is a veritable religion in this country of 82 million people.
Yet despite avid enthusiasm for the game, Vietnamese football is hamstrung by insufficient investment, crumbling infrastructure and a professional national championship riven by match-fixing and corruption. Since 1995, foreign coaches of the national team have regularly run into problems with Vietnam's football authorities, becoming wearied by the endless debates, internal divisions, and conflicts that have afflicted the body.
Agence France Presse - 10 Janvier 2005
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