10 years after the day Mr. Kien stole the stage at the V.League season summary conference, it is the turn of another boss to stir up the Vietnamese professional sports scene. This time it is Mr. Dao Huu Huyen at the Congress of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV), with many of the same thoughts as Mr. Kien before, even though the two sports are completely different. Now, Vietnamese volleyball is facing a historic turning point and fans of this sport hope that the tournaments will not follow in the footsteps of the V.League.
Mr. Dao Huu Huyen's thoughts
At the National Congress of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation, term VII (2021-2025) held on December 12, Mr. Dao Huu Huyen, representing Duc Giang Chemical Club, was the first to speak. He made the audience stir with 15 minutes of delving into the chronic problems of the country's volleyball.
Chairman of Duc Giang Chemical Club Dao Huu Huyen.
First of all, the outstanding story of Vietnamese volleyball in 2021: the transfer of players and coaches between teams. Even those who are not really interested in volleyball know about the strange deal between "beauty queen" coach Pham Thi Kim Hue and Bamboo Airways Vinh Phuc earlier this year. At that time, Kim Hue and her three students Ninh Anh, Phuong Anh, Thu Hoai still had contracts with the Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICB) but agreed to move to Vinh Phuc with an attractive signing bonus. However, the ICB did not allow these members to leave and filed a lawsuit with VFV, leading to the shocking punishment for Kim Hue.
After that, under pressure from public opinion, VFV agreed to show mercy and ignore disciplinary actions against Kim Hue and her students. In fact, VFV did not have sufficient legal basis to issue disciplinary action, because the volleyball transfer regulations were too sketchy and had not been updated for the past 10 years.
Although he did not specifically mention the above incident, Mr. Dao Huu Huyen also implicitly supported Vinh Phuc in the transfer method. Before Vinh Phuc emerged with investment from Bamboo Airways and FLC Group, Mr. Huyen's Duc Giang Ha Noi Chemicals was a phenomenon in Vietnamese volleyball thanks to its lavish spending on recruiting stars.
According to Mr. Huyen, it is time for volleyball to rebuild the transfer mechanism, creating conditions for clubs that want to invest in the team to have a place to spend money both reasonably and appropriately. “Why is Vietnamese volleyball becoming less attractive? Because when we go away from Ngoc Hoa, Kim Hue, to Thanh Thuy, Bich Tuyen, there are not many athletes to choose from. Duc Giang Chemicals has to go everywhere to recruit talents, but people ignore us and criticize us as nouveau riche who go after athletes. The problem is that we always follow the Federation's regulations and do not do anything wrong. Smooth transfers will help increase the value of Vietnamese athletes to 2 billion, 3 billion, even 4 billion. That is the true value of athletes, they are the top talents of the country's volleyball and deserve high incomes,” said Mr. Huyen.
Also related to the transfer of athletes, Mr. Huyen said that it was time for Vietnamese volleyball to reopen its doors to foreign players. More than 10 years ago, the wave of foreign players helped the Vietnam National Championship make a big splash, not only with domestic fans but also with volleyball enthusiasts abroad. The peak of foreign players was the 2011 season, with a total of 22 stars from all over the world, including Thailand. In 2012, there were also 20 foreign players competing across the country. Unfortunately, that was also the last year that volleyball clubs were allowed to use international athletes.
Vietnamese volleyball needs a new direction.
At that time, VFV issued the ban because it believed that the teams relied too much on foreign players without investing in development and giving opportunities to young athletes. Not to mention, the wave of foreign players brought with it problems such as secret deals and price inflation in transfers. This ban was opposed by experts from the moment it appeared, because it went against the plan to professionalize volleyball. However, it has existed for the past 10 years and has delayed the national championship. Without using foreign players, many teams still fall into the situation of "old bamboo but young shoots have not yet grown", leading to a decline in the strength of the entire team.
Before the recent Congress, many opinions called for VFV to bring back foreign players. Therefore, fans can expect Mr. Huyen's additional voice to be strong enough to make this a reality in the 2022 season.
Finally, Mr. Huyen did not forget to mention the eternal problem of Vietnamese professional sports: finance. It is difficult to blame VFV and the clubs, because even in the "king sport" of football, the story of money always gives managers a headache. However, the current bonus levels of national tournaments are really too low and of course unattractive.
“The prize money for the national championship and youth tournaments needs to be doubled or tripled. No one plays the tournament all year long just to receive a bonus of 150 million for the whole team. I propose to reward the champion team at least 500 million, the second place team 300 million, the third place team 200 million. If there is a shortage, I pledge to sponsor 1 billion for this year’s national championship,” Mr. Huyen affirmed.
Don't follow in V.League's footsteps
It is very likely that Vietnamese volleyball will enter a major reform after the speech of the owner of Duc Giang Chemicals.
New VFV President Hoang Ngoc Huan proposed 4 solutions to develop Vietnamese volleyball.
Notably, Mr. Huyen has nominated himself for the VFV Executive Committee and was approved. In addition, he also mentioned the establishment of Vietnam Volleyball Joint Stock Company (VPV) like the VPF of football to run the tournament professionally. If this happens, VPV will be born. However, will VPV become an extension of VFV or will it push Vietnamese volleyball into the same rut as V.League? No one can be sure at this point, but the controversies that VPF has created over the past 10 years will be a great lesson for VPV to avoid making the same mistake.
In theory, volleyball fans can expect VPV if this unit is established. First, the number of professional volleyball clubs is less than football. The national championship promises to be reduced to 6 to 8 teams in the coming years to increase quality and competitiveness. In addition, volleyball also does not have a manager involved in many teams. This will help VPV manage more conveniently.
Second, the number of professional volleyball players is also many times less than football. The mechanism for transferring and registering athletes is therefore easy to modify and update if necessary. The time from now until the start of the 2022 season is enough for VFV and VPV to renew the regulations, avoiding the recurrence of incidents like those with Kim Hue and her students. Moreover, this is a golden opportunity for volleyball to serve as a model for other sports in Vietnam, including football. Perhaps, volleyball, not football, will be the first sport to operate according to international commercial principles, by abolishing the youth training compensation law and replacing it with a contract release fee, creating civil transactions between clubs - an unprecedented precedent in the history of Vietnamese sports.
Only then will the cash flow between clubs circulate, creating momentum for training and developing athletes. Clubs that are strong because of rice and bold because of money can recruit the athletes they want, while other clubs have the revenue to reinvest and search for new young talents.
Finally, VPV can do better than VFV in calling for sponsorship. In recent years, the main sponsors of domestic tournaments are also sponsors of clubs. To develop sustainably while avoiding unnecessary negativity, volleyball needs to be “socialized” more strongly and attract investment from many different sources.
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