Anh Đức

The Sông Lam Nghệ An under-11 football team, who recently won the 2024 National Under-11 football championship, was just stripped off their title and banned from participating in upcoming tournaments for two years by the VFF. 

And sadly, as with other 'scandals' in Vietnamese football that I've covered in this column, I have two phrases that I'd like to use: 'This is not the first time' and 'The consequences of this is far greater than the mere punishment that was granted'.

The Under-11 football championships is a tournament with history in Vietnamese football, with the first edition started in 1996. The tournament, unlike under-11 championships in other countries, which are usually obscure, is even broadcast live on national television and was the first steps of stars such as Nguyễn Văn Toàn, Vũ Văn Thanh, Phạm Đức Huy and Nguyễn Quang Hải.

Throughout its 28 editions, Sông Lam Nghệ An won the most with six trophies. But live viewers always saw something that was odd about the Nghệ An players and voiced their opinions about how some young footballers were significantly taller and looked older than their opponents. In 2023, their U11 squad was suspected of age fraud after dominating performances against opponents in the group stage and their coach was forced to bench the players in question in the semifinals, which they lost. No investigation nor answers were given by the organisers then, but that did not repeat in 2024.

The two-year ban, the VNĐ10 million (US$350) fine, is a tiny speck of dust compare to the enormous aftermath to the image of Nghệ An football, of Vietnamese football as a whole.

In an era where everything about a citizen is being digitalised, leading to lesser cases of document loss, why is age fraud in football and sports in Việt Nam still a thing?

And why is it that it's almost always Nghệ An footballers that get questions about their age, from the kids playing indoor football all the way to superstars such as Nguyễn Công Phượng?

The senior Sông Lam Nghệ An football club, with a whooping amount of victories at youth level, should have been Việt Nam's 'Academy of Football', with an always-ready host of talents ready to bring victory to both club and nation.

Instead, the club has been fighting relegations for the better part of the last 13 seasons after they won the V.League in 2011. Some might even say this was a karmic result.

And also, what happens then to the nine, ten-year-old footballers in Nghệ An who are rightfully eligible and talented, but had no chance to compete against age fraud players then ? And had no more chance to compete in the next two years? Would their dreams be ruined because of adults' shortsighted greed?

And what happens then to the players who won the trophy but was stripped, what happens to the players whose coaches and families committed age fraud? Will their football dreams continue, will their ambitions and mentality be affected?

All these questions, the adults in charge and responsible for should not be answered now when all is said and done, but should be answered before they committed these acts of fraud. VNS