Phu Tho FC players during a training session in preparation for the 2025 National Second Division Football Tournament. Photo: Phu Tho FC
Not new
FIFA confirmed that Phu Tho FC was punished for match manipulation - an act of illegally influencing or changing the course or outcome of a match. This announcement did not specify which specific match Phu Tho FC was involved in. Although the club has 10 days to appeal, the Vietnam Football Federation has suspended Phu Tho FC from round 5 of the 2025 National Second Division Football Tournament. The results of Phu Tho's matches before this round have also been annulled.
In fact, Phu Tho is not the first Vietnamese sports club to be disciplined by a world-level sports management organization after that organization directly discovered violations. In 2019 - 2020, Vietnamese weightlifting received consecutive bad news when up to 4 athletes were discovered by the World Anti-Doping Organization to be using banned substances during training and competition through random testing.
In fact, WADA staff can go to any country to randomly collect doping samples from any athlete, even when the athlete is in training. Weightlifter Trinh Van Vinh was tested by this organization and had his doping sample taken during the preparation for the 2018 National Sports Festival. Later, Trinh Van Vinh's doping sample was positive; the penalty for this weightlifter took effect from the beginning of 2019 and will not end until 2023.
The story of Phu Tho Club shows that negativity is still creeping into tournaments in Vietnam. That is a big problem in the journey to create a truly “clean” Vietnamese sports environment.
Many parties involved
FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency are both leading organizations in preventing and combating negative behavior in sports activities. It is no coincidence that FIFA has created an online reporting system. Accordingly, whistleblowers can use their real or anonymous identities to create accounts and report any behavior or form of manipulation of matches or tournaments. After receiving the information, FIFA and its member organizations will coordinate to clarify and handle any violations. The case of Phu Tho Club being handled as above shows once again that match manipulation can happen at any time in Vietnamese football.
Meanwhile, the use of doping in many sports, especially weightlifting, cycling... has forced the World Anti-Doping Agency to come up with a solution of going to many countries to conduct random doping tests on many athletes. Even athletes of one country who are training in another country can be randomly sampled for doping. This is done to avoid the case where athletes using doping can bypass the competition organizers and have time to "cleanse" their doping when practicing before the competition day. By the time the competition is over, if the organizers get a doping test sample, it will be too late. Obviously, this is an effective method with a high deterrent effect.
Also because the World Anti-Doping Organization has been working hard, from 2021 until now, there has not been any case of Vietnamese weightlifters being banned from competing due to being detected using doping after random doping tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Organization.
In a recent announcement, the Vietnam Football Federation affirmed that this organization is determined to have zero tolerance for negative behavior. The Federation will strengthen control over the entire national football system to ensure transparency and sustainable development of Vietnamese football.
The General Secretary of the Vietnam Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Federation, Do Dinh Khang, also said that the World Anti-Doping Organization's random doping testing in many countries is a drastic and effective solution, although it is very costly. Not only weightlifting but many other sports in Vietnam need to propagate and disseminate this issue to athletes as well as strictly implement measures to check and monitor athletes.
Preventing and combating corruption is certainly not only the responsibility of FIFA, the World Anti-Doping Agency or a number of national sports federations. It is also the responsibility of sports management agencies from the central to local levels throughout the country and this work needs to be given adequate attention and investment and given more importance.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/canh-bao-do-cho-the-thao-viet-nam-701877.html
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