Thanh Hoa Club involved in lawsuit with coach Tanasijevic (left) - Photo: QT
Dong A Thanh Hoa Club (Thanh Hoa Club) has just been banned by FIFA from registering players from March 25, 2025 due to not fulfilling financial obligations to Serbian coach Svetislav Tanasijevic. The registration ban period is 3 transfer periods.
Many V-League clubs sued to FIFA
Thanh Hoa FC is just the most familiar name, representing Vietnamese football, appearing most frequently in the FIFA complaint settlement room. In the past 5 years, Thanh Hoa has spent nearly half a million USD in compensation.
The total amount Thanh Hoa Club had to pay according to FIFA records is 470,920 USD (about 12.1 billion VND). All are related to contract disputes involving foreign players and foreign coaches.
The most recent and most sensational was the fact that Hoang Anh Gia Lai Club was banned from registering players by FIFA. The reason came from being sued by player Martin Dzilah for financial obligations after the contract was terminated.
Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC then had to settle with Martin Dzilah and FIFA lifted the ban. Similarly, Thanh Hoa FC will escape punishment if it pays the amount of money according to FIFA's ruling to coach Tanasijevic.
In recent years, more and more V-League clubs have been sued by foreign players or foreign coaches to FIFA. Among them are big clubs such as Hanoi FC and Nam Dinh Steel Club with large compensation amounts.
When Vietnamese clubs are sued by FIFA, most of them lose and are forced to pay compensation as requested, instead of minimizing the damage right from the negotiation step of terminating the contract.
Foreign player Mauricio unsuccessfully sued Ho Chi Minh City Club - Photo: QT
How to reduce damage?
It is said that most of the Vietnamese football teams that were sued by FIFA lost because there were also a few cases that won. It shows that there is still a way to win the lawsuit instead of having to pay large compensation or spend money on complaints.
Typically in 2021, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Club was declared the winner when it was sued by player Roberto Dias Correia Filho. The case had no evidence related to the fake trial invitation letter from the mountain town team.
A recent case is that Ho Chi Minh City FC won a lawsuit against foreign player Mauricio Plenckauskas Cordeiro thanks to a sports legal consulting firm. Ho Chi Minh City FC avoided losing more than 81,000 USD (about 2 billion VND).
Ho Chi Minh City Club used AVS Sports Management Company - the representative of Eleven & Law Law Firm in Vietnam - to resolve the dispute instead of assigning it to the club's legal department to handle directly.
Mr. Le Anh Vinh - Director of AVS Sports Management Company - said: "The organizational structure of clubs in Vietnam does not have a specialized FIFA legal department. Many teams do not assign people to monitor FIFA legal information portals such as Legal Portal, so they easily miss information, leading to losing lawsuits due to not having time to explain."
Observing dozens of lawsuits filed by V-League clubs to FIFA, Mr. Le Anh Vinh also commented that many teams know that unilaterally terminating contracts is wrong but still do it and think that FIFA will not touch them. This is almost only true for Vietnamese players or coaches, but for foreigners, it is different.
The only solution is that V-League clubs need to focus on raising awareness of sports law and complying with Vietnamese and international laws. "VFF needs to organize conferences and seminars on sports law so that teams can raise awareness and know how to handle lawsuits to FIFA to reduce damage," said Mr. Le Anh Vinh.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/clb-v-league-cu-bi-kien-len-fifa-la-thua-20250403180022054.htm
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