FIFA demotes Phu Tho Club for match manipulation

FIFA issued an important announcement to its member federations, including information that Vietnam's Phu Tho Club was relegated to the third division for manipulating matches in the 2025 second division.

Phu Tho Club was directly relegated by FIFA for manipulating the match - Photo: CLBPT

On the evening of May 2, FIFA sent a notice that two teams were banned by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee for their involvement in manipulating match results. Notably, one of the two teams mentioned is Phu Tho Club.

Phu Tho Club is competing in the 2025 national second division. They are at the bottom of Group A after 3 consecutive losses, with a goal difference of -10 and have not scored a single goal.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee concluded that Phu Tho Club had engaged in negative activities related to the manipulation of matches and tournaments. FIFA decided to remove Phu Tho Club from the second division.

FIFA has asked the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to relegate Phu Tho Club to the third division from next season, after discovering match manipulation.

FIFA has informed VFF of this incident so that the Vietnamese football management agency can immediately take measures to prevent and detect acts of match and tournament manipulation.

FIFA also notified Phu Tho Club to appeal if they want within 10 days.

In addition, FIFA said it is providing a dedicated, highly confidential whistleblowing system so users can report any potential match manipulation or negative behaviour.

This is the first time FIFA has directly intervened and demoted a Vietnamese football club without going through the decision of the VFF.

The 2025 Second Division starts on April 11. 15 teams are divided into 2 groups, playing a round-robin tournament in a home-away format to select 4 teams to be promoted to the national first division.

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QUANG THINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/fifa-danh-rot-hang-clb-phu-tho-vi-thao-tung-tran-dau-20250502221725951.htm