VietNamNet Bridge – The chief coach of the national football squad, Henrique Calisto, has become the first coach of the national football team who has refused to talk to the media when he definitively said no to any question from the media on Saturday.

Calisto and correspondents at Phuket, Thailand.

Calisto refused to speak to the media because many newspapers have criticized the Vietnamese team’s performance during the qualifier round of the ASEAN Football Cup or AFF Suzuki Cup 2008 in Phuket recently.

With the previous six foreign coaches of the national squad, some refused to answer the questions of several correspondents or several newspapers, Calisto is the first who would not answer any questions from any news agency.

Since he assumed the chief coach position, Calisto always said he was very open to the media, perhaps the most open among foreign coaches.

“Which coach has let correspondents have meals and share the same house with footballers like me? They could speak to players anytime, and I am always willing to answer their questions,” he said.

However, the peaceful period between Calisto and the media has seemed to pass since the HCM City International Football Cup. At that time, the national team lost three consecutive matches, and goalkeeper Santos, Calisto’s favorite player, was “guilty” with two silly goals scored by Turkmenistan into its goal.

Since that tournament, the number of articles criticizing the national football squad has been increasing. Calisto can not read Vietnamese, but his assistants always translate these articles for him.

After the 2-2 draw match against Thailand at the T&T Cup 2008, Calisto was very proud of the achievement, while a local newspaper wrote that Thailand intended to help the host team have a draw.

Calisto was very angry at that story and during a drilling at the national stadium of My Dinh recently, he said that article and the author were “stupid.”

Another time, when a newspaper reported that the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) asked Calisto to not let his team lose in the friendly match against Singapore in mid-October, the Portuguese coach was so angry because the VFF did not tell him that. He planed to ask the newspaper to release a correction, but then he neglected and said he always saw the media as his friend.

When the national team was in Phuket, in an interview before the Vietnam-Laos match, Calisto was angry when a question was not transplanted properly. A correspondent asked whether the coach was over-confident when he said that the Vietnamese team will play better if they have him on the coaching board. The interpreters used the word “arrogant” instead of “over-confident,” so the coach became angry with the correspondent.

When will the honeymoon return?

However, the relationships between Calisto and the local media was still good until the qualifier round of AFF Suzuki Cup in Phuket, and even until December 11, when the team arrived in Hanoi.

On the morning of December 12, after he knew the content of articles in local newspapers that quoted criticism by football fans, correspondents and experts, Calisto was very angry and he refused to talk to any local newspaper during the drilling on the same day.

When will the coach end his silence to the media? According to the rules of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), the chief coach of all participating teams must answer questions from the media at press conferences held before and after each match, otherwise they will be fined.

Calisto is now in the list of concern of the AFF because the coach seriously criticized AFF after the first two matches of Vietnam in the qualifier round of AFF Cup 2008.

Before Calisto, two former chief coaches Edson Dido and Alfred Riedl stated that they would not talk to some correspondents because they did not agree with their articles.

(Source: Tien Phong)