Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister VuDuc Dam has requested to make football a transparent sport, at a recent seminar todiscuss Vietnam football in Hanoi.

It was the first conferencein which the government leader asked concerned agencies to have answers indetails to meet people’s demands and raise national football to even higherlevels.

The seminar was jointlyorganised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry ofEducation, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and the Vietnam ProfessionalFootball Company.

The conference alsoattracted many others involved in the game, such as coaches, referees,journalists and football fans.

During the five-hourconference, Dam pointed to different reasons leading to the limited number ofspectators in the stands at almost all stadiums nationwide.

He noted that there hadbeen dishonest and unclear games, and he asked leaders of the VFF to develop aresponse to these problems.

VFF Vice President Tran QuocTuan admitted that this was the correct analysis, and confirmed that thenational football governing body would do its best to solve the problems andassure the strong development of the sport.

“Yes, there are problems,such as match fixing, violence and others. But VFF does not condone these andhas made strong responses against these,” said Tuan.

“We said ‘No’ to negativeactivities and forever expelled players and referees who were involved in theseproblems. Here we can look at the match fixing cases in Ninh Binh and Long An,as examples,” he said.

Deputy Minister of Culture,Sports and Tourism Le Khanh Hai and head of the V.League organising board NguyenMinh Ngoc agreed with his statements.

“We willwork on the matter seriously in the 2018 season. The unfair-play and violentbehaviour, as well as match fixing, will be strictly fined,” Ngoc said.

Dam saidhe appreciated these clear answers from the ministry and the VFF, but requestedthat these bodies must now take actions, following their statements, and theymust inform the the public.

He alsosaid the VFF was going to have their congress in the next few months. VFFshould conduct a renewal to earn the people’s trust.

Thequality of referees was also an important issue at the conference.

Head of the VFF’s RefereeCouncil Nguyen Van Mui fielded many questions claiming that the councilshielded their members, including those who made mistakes. An example was howreferee Nguyen Trong Thu, son of Mui, was brought to court because of matchfixing in the past, but is continuing to work in the V.League.

Responding to theaccusations, Mui said the council did not screen anyone. These referees couldcome back to work because they received permission from the VFF.

He also confirmed that thecouncil worked based upon rules, but admitted that, currently, the prestige ofbeing a referee has declined.

"They have made moremistakes in recent years, causing a decrease in our prestige. We have beenseeking suitable solutions, but it must be said that Vietnamese football isvery complicated,” he said.

“Referees suffer from heavypressure on the field. Teams always try to force them to change theirdecisions. If our officials cannot block this pressure, mistakes will happen.As a result, we really need strict fines for extreme reactions against referees,”he said.

Deputy PM Dam also raised aquestion about the strategy’s target to develop football, and how it wascarried out.

Minister of Culture, Sportsand Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said these targets were adequate and did not needto be adjusted. However, Vietnam has not reached any of these targets, and hetook responsibility for that.

Head of the NationalAdministration of Sports, Vuong Bich Thang, said involved agencies were giventheir tasks to perform, and the administration’s annually monitoring foundpositive results. However, the overseeing was not as strict as is necessary.

Regarding the target ofwinning the Southeast Asian Games for the first time, Thang said VFF and theadministration were focused on youth football training, which was consideredthe foundation of developing the sport. The VFF took full responsibility forthis task. The ministry of culture and sports also paid expenses for trainingyouth squads, hiring experienced foreign experts and sending them to intensivepractice courses abroad.

The squads from U11 to U21had recently earned good results and raised their record in internationalcompetitions. The ministry would also pay more to lift Vietnam in the comingSEA Games.

Dam asked the twoministries at the seminar to strengthen their cooperation to develop schoolfootball. Players were asked to play with discipline and develop the spirit toplay fairly.

He said that to develophonest and attractive football competitions, a routine was needed. But it mustfollow the rules recognised worldwide. Football should be developed from theamateur level to youth, to professionals and then the national teams.

Players must be trained innot only skills and techniques, but also in ethics, nutrition, and in theireducational backgrounds.-VNA