The organising board of V-League 2009 met with fullback Minh Duc’s lawyer and the two related clubs Hai Phong and The Cong on February 5.

Fullback Minh Duc.

At the meeting, The Cong’s representative said the club was willing to let Minh Duc join Hai Phong if Minh Duc wanted to.

Hai Phong club insisted that they had signed an employment contract with this fullback before The Cong and that Minh Duc should either be forced to join Hai Phong or be penalised by the VFF.

Minh Duc said he was ready to be penalised by VFF rather than become a member of Hai Phong. The fullback’s lawyer, Le Thanh Son, said Minh Duc had signed a draft contract with Hai Phong, but that the draft document was not legally binding.

The lawyer affirmed that Hai Phong had breached the VFF’s rules by not informing Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA), the previous owner of Minh Duc, about negotiating with and signing the draft contract with this fullback. The Cong met with Minh Duc later but this club obeyed the rules, both informing SLNA and paying transfer fees of VND2 billion ($117,640).

The draft contract between Minh Duc and Hai Phong said that 20 days after the signing of this draft document, the two sides had to sign an official contract. 5-10 days after the official contract was signed, Hai Phong had to pay transfer fees to Minh Duc, otherwise the draft contract was invalid. In fact, Hai Phong didn’t pay transfer fees to Minh Duc.

The lawyer said that an employment contract is considered legal if there are three original copies with the signatures of related sides. Hai Phong currently shows only one contract.

The case has been transferred to the VFF Disciplinary Department for final consideration.

VietNamNet/TT&VH