The case of two former coaches Dang Dao and Nguyen Ty who were recently prosecuted in Khanh Hoa is a painful warning: When the person assigned to "lead the dream" becomes the one who usurps trust.
Many youth football training facilities in Vietnam are still hesitant to put their trust in young domestic coaches. Although many of them have international qualifications, playing experience, modern thinking and are close to the young generation, being able to take on the role of coach is still a distant dream.
The main reason is the fear of risk, fear of collision and the tendency to "safeguard" in operating the system. However, the paradox lies in the fact that even when given power, a part of domestic coaches, as the incident in Khanh Hoa shows, do not use that power to lead development but to... profit.
On May 30, 2025, Khanh Hoa Provincial Police prosecuted and temporarily detained two former youth football coaches: Mr. Dang Dao (former U19 coach) and Mr. Nguyen Ty (former U17 coach) on charges of abusing his position and power to appropriate property. The total amount of money appropriated was more than 3.2 billion VND, of which more than 500 million VND was state budget money, the rest belonged to young athletes.
These two people turned their financial management authority into a series of sophisticated and systematic acts of appropriation. They not only kept the players' ATM cards and passwords, but also directly withdrew money, dividing it according to an "internal scale" set by themselves, without public disclosure, without going through parents or management.
A series of tricks were exposed such as: Inflating training time, especially on Saturdays for 3 years (2021-2023); not completing the termination procedures for retired players but still keeping their names to receive money; "legalizing" the embezzlement under the name of "team fund", treating injuries, buying personal items...
Not only did they embezzle food and wages, but they also "laundered money" through seemingly legitimate activities, making inspection difficult for many years.
Many young players in Khanh Hoa have left football after having their wages cut, not being given the opportunity to play, or simply feeling exploited during their training. They not only lose a small amount of income, but more importantly, they lose their career direction and faith in the profession.
The story of Nguyen Trong Hieu not receiving any salary for 9 months and then being fired, or the case of Le Quoc Khanh having his salary cut for an entire year despite still practicing fully... are deep cuts in the psychology of young people.
Statistics show that, although Khanh Hoa used to be the cradle of many Vietnamese football stars, in the past 5 years, the number of young players promoted to play professionally can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Even the 8 people promoted in the 2023-2024 season were considered "forced to ripen", when the first team fell into a force crisis and eventually... relegated.
Looking more broadly at Khanh Hoa, many young domestic coaches today, despite having good professional backgrounds, are not really ready to take on a leadership role. Some are afraid of the pressure of achievement, afraid of taking responsibility, afraid of conflicts with parents or the media.
But if they are afraid of pressure and being at the forefront, then they cannot be expected to inspire, teach courage and discipline to the players. There are also people who are given power, but do not have enough professional ethics to behave properly, as the Khanh Hoa case is a clear example.
This raises an urgent need to train domestic coaches not only in professional skills, but also in professional ethics, management capacity, communication skills and social responsibility.
The youth training system will not be effective if there are still “gray areas” in controlling the power of coaches. The centers need to establish a cross-monitoring mechanism, make team finances transparent, and publicly evaluate the performance of both coaches and players. It is necessary to encourage young coaches with real ability to step up, but at the same time, it is necessary to strictly control to avoid “empowerment becoming abuse of power”.
For Vietnamese youth football to have a generation of brave players, the first thing is to have a generation of domestic coaches who dare to do, dare to take responsibility and live a decent life with their profession. No one can inspire dreams in others if they themselves are the ones who stifle their faith.
It is time, in addition to “empowerment”, Vietnamese football needs to lay a solid foundation for coaching ethics, from training schools, to every training ground, to every technical meeting room. Otherwise, the very people who are trusted will continue to “legalize” wrongdoing and steal the future of a generation.
Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/bao-gio-moi-dam-lam-dam-chiu-trach-nhiem-141902.html
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