Vietnamese athletes make money from personal brands: Need mentors

Athletes are inherently focused on their expertise, so it will be difficult to ensure that training, competition, image building, and commercial exploitation are balanced. At this time, they need representatives and managers with heart and vision.

RISK IS ALWAYS POTENTIAL

A professional media agent or manager not only needs to have a deep understanding of sports and contract negotiation, but also needs to be knowledgeable about advertising laws, brand image and public ethics. Carelessness in choosing advertising partners can cause athletes to face media crises, directly affecting their personal image.

Agents must be aware of many different regulations, for example, players are not allowed to wear the Vietnam national team shirt when doing an advertisement for a brand that does not sponsor VFF.

PHOTO: MINH TU

Once two of the most prominent and beloved players in Vietnamese football, Cong Phuong and Quang Hai were both embroiled in controversy when they participated in advertising for beer brands. At that time, the promotional videos of these players caused controversy when they used inappropriate and misleading images. Another notable example is defender Vu Van Thanh, who participated in promoting a binary options trading platform that was warned of signs of fraud. This promotional video was later removed when a wave of backlash erupted. Van Thanh may not have been directly aware of the legal risks, but if he had a professional representative, he could have been advised to avoid this mistake.

The above examples show that the role of an agent is not only to negotiate benefits, but also to be a "gatekeeper" to protect the athlete's image from media risks. In the digital age, a mistake on social media can cause years of hard work to build a reputation to disappear with just one click. Especially when advertising contracts with beer and alcohol brands and cryptocurrencies bring in much higher salaries than other products, athletes need to be careful. Even superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was once involved in a scandal when advertising for a global cryptocurrency exchange. Risks do not exclude anyone, even world-famous athletes. Therefore, athletes cannot lack a professional support team if they want to develop sustainably.

In addition to supporting communication and promoting the image, agents or managers also need to have a solid knowledge of the law, especially the specialized regulations of each sports federation. This helps them to protect the interests of their clients to the maximum extent in business transactions, as well as handle disputes that arise. For example, in football, the agent is the person who directly negotiates contracts with the club, and must clearly understand each binding clause, from salary, contract term to additional clauses such as performance bonuses or transfer fees. When a dispute arises, the agent will be the legal representative for the player to submit a complaint to FIFA or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

With such an important role, FIFA currently only grants the FIFA Football Agent License to those who pass the exam organized by FIFA itself, which includes complex contents related to international transfer regulations, FIFA laws, and CAS regulations. Understanding and applying the law correctly not only helps athletes to ensure maximum benefits but also helps to avoid legal risks throughout their playing career.

NOT JUST KNOWLEDGE

Managers and agents need a lot of knowledge in many areas to ensure the best interests of athletes, but that is not enough. They need to have "insights" about the market, about the sport and also understand the personality of the athletes they are managing. These are values that cannot be learned in school but must be accumulated through practical experience.

A leader of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation shared with Thanh Nien about this issue: "For example, athletes participating in Vietnam will have very different characteristics than in the US or in Europe. From commercial pricing to the rules of conduct of each market are very different. In Vietnam, the sports market has not really developed, so representatives need to have in-depth knowledge to be able to build a network of relationships with sponsors, advertisers, as well as commercial pricing in each stage or each field accordingly. For example, representatives of soccer athletes need to clearly understand how the soccer sports market is being interested in? What is the target audience? How influential is the athlete they represent to fans? And more importantly, the criteria for selecting athletes to become ambassadors of brands or clubs. Through the athlete they represent, what benefits will the sponsoring/advertising brand gain... Or the representative of volleyball players when transferring to foreign clubs Then you need to evaluate the value of the athlete you represent in that market? What is the difference between the two markets? What preparations do you need to make so that the athlete you represent can compete well?

In general, an athlete who wants to exploit commercial value commensurate with his/her professional capacity and image needs a mentor. The leader added: "If alone, athletes will have difficulty accessing sponsorship/advertising opportunities due to lack of relationships. Lacking contract negotiation skills, they may be at a disadvantage in terms of value or risk during contract execution... Athletes also do not have enough time and knowledge to build a professional image, and are prone to making mistakes when interacting with the media or the public... In addition, athletes also face many other disadvantages in career development such as difficulty accessing international opportunities due to poor foreign language skills. Most athletes are still quite weak in their ability to orient their long-term careers." (continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vdv-viet-nam-kiem-tien-tu-thuong-hieu-ca-nhan-can-nguoi-dieu-dat-185250718234356616.htm