by Tien Thanh

HCM CITY — Viet Nam Football League officials have chosen to deal with complicated issues and outside pressure from fans, owners and media by refusing to be accountable in certain matters.

Despite having a national council of coaches, the VFF, in the process of seeking a new head coach for the national team, were still not brave enough to make a decision based on their own judgement.

They waited far too long for responses from the media and fans before finally having the courage to choose a coach, even though two friendlies against China and Chinese Hong Kong were scheduled to be played in early June.

In a press conference to announce the national coach, the VFF representative emphasised that the appointment of Phan Thanh Hung received massive support from fans, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Administration of Sport and Physical Exercise.

He declined to mention the hard work of the VFF and the national council of coaches.

"Along with the integration of Vietnamese football into world football, Vietnamese locals have made progress in their capability and this is a suitable time for them to prove themselves. This received support from the ministry, the administration and fans," he was quote as saying on the VFF website.

Although the discussions of whether overseas Vietnamese-origin players should be allowed to play for the national team began five years ago, the VFF has not drawn up regulations on this issue.

Because of lack of rules about the issue, the VFF shows inconsistency about whether it should call up Vietnamese-German Nguyen Thanh Giang and Vietnamese-Czech Mac Hong Quan, who were recommended by coach Mai Duc Chung, for the U-22 team.

VFF's vice president Nguyen Lan Trung said that these two players would not be on the team this time, but only one day later, the VFF said these players were allowed to play for the U-22 team.

This announcement came only after the media discussed the problem.

Ironically, the VFF officials, who were awarded higher salaries earlier this year so they would do a more professional job, bent the rules to satisfy Sai Gon FC's owner, who wanted to have his company's name added to the club's name.

The club, which was promoted to the V-League after winning the First Division, was renamed Sai Gon FC just before the V-League 2012 season kicked off.

However, after just half a season, the club inexplicably sent a request to the VFF to ask to retain the club's old name, Sai Gon Xuan Thanh. The VFF immediately rejected the request.

The country's football governing body cited Item 1 Clause 7 of the professional football regulations which stipulate that the club's name must not be changed for several years.

However, after only five rounds of matches, Vietnamese media suddenly began using the name Sai Gon Xuan Thanh instead of Sai Gon FC in their stories on the V-League, saying that this had been accepted by the VFF, whose website had not published any information about the renaming of the club. — VNS