Nigerian Anjembe Timothy (L) exults after scoring a goal for Dong Thap at the beginning of the V- League season.

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has said it will soon get football brokerage under control to improve the game in the country and to comply with FIFA regulations.

VFF general secretary Tran Quoc Tuan said, “A few years ago, Féderation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) sent top officials to speak about professional football and held a workshop specifically on football brokerage in Vietnam.

“The then AFC general secretary Peter Velappan and ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) general secretary Paul Mony said the more developed football is in a country, the more it needs brokers but managing them is a complicated job because sometimes brokers are involved in disputes over management of footballers.”

Paul Mony also said FIFA would fine VFF and brokers in Vietnam if the broker is not a certified FIFA agent. He stressed FIFA doesn’t allow a broker to be a manager at a club because it can badly affect her or his management.

Mai Duc Chung, coach of V-League defending champions Binh Duong, said, “If clubs can afford it, they must do something like The Cong who sent the club president and coach to Brazil to look for players.”

He said not many clubs have the resources to do this, so brokers were needed in the country, he added.

However, some brokers are very good at “polishing” the players and the clubs don’t have enough opportunities to check everything, so they employ bad-quality or injured players who can’t make big contributions to the club,” Chung noted.

He was making an oblique reference to Hai Phong’s hiring of Brazilian World Cup Winner Denilson de Oliveira… who left after playing for just 50 minutes in a single match.

Who is a broker?

Football brokerage in Vietnam is now a complicated affair with the official standing of brokers still unclear. It has contributed to the development of Vietnamese football but brokers have sometimes been involved in disreputable transfers.

What is important is that such issues are “out of control” of VFF. Despite being given the right to manage and control football brokerage in Vietnam by FIFA, VFF appears to be rather passive and sometimes considers itself an outsider.

Take the case of Cameroonian player Francis Clement introduced to the Fourth Military Zone by Tran Tien Dai two years ago. The Cameroonian died suddenly on the second day of his trial at the club during a warm-up.

The Fourth Military Zone Hospital said Clement had a congenital heart problem but he did not have a medical test when he first arrived.

The VFF just asked Dai’s company Dai Nguyen to report the case and pay for the body of the Cameroonian to be returned to the African country. VFF didn’t impose any severe penalty and the case was forgotten quickly.

Several clubs have received players of bad quality but they have no recourse but to accept the situation and swallow the bitterness because they know VFF would do nothing if they filed a complaint.

VFF President Nguyen Trong Hy said there are some illegal football brokers in Vietnam but it is hard to penalize them because, officially, they are employment agencies finding workers for companies that need them, in this case, football clubs.

They contribute to the growth of Vietnamese football but VFF is concerned that these brokers just inflate the price of some players, not reflecting their true value, Hy said.

Hy also expressed concern that if football brokerage does not comply with FIFA regulations, Vietnam may be penalized by the world football governing body by forbidding the national team from competing in official tournaments.

VFF is making plans to establish a professional footballers’ association under VFF, Hy said. The association will be responsible for protecting the players and helping VFF manage them by issuing licenses to foreign players who play in Vietnam.

Brokers have to report to or get approval from the association when they want to transfer or introduce players to Vietnamese clubs, making football brokers in Vietnam comply with FIFA rules, Hy said.

VFF will also amend its regulations to include football brokerage. VFF Vice President Vu Quang Vinh, who is in charge of preparing rules and legal document amendments to be submitted to FIFA at the sixth conference this September, said, “In any situation, VFF, the clubs and brokers in Vietnam must comply with FIFA rules.

“Brokers must have FIFA certificates. Clubs can only accept players introduced by certified FIFA agents. It is easy to check that by calling VFF or FIFA.”

Vinh noted that FIFA organizes tests every year for people to become certified FIFA agents and VFF always helps brokers by announcing the information and organizing tests in Vietnam.

Reported by Quang Tuyen – Lan Phuong