A state official of the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang and his subordinates have been found committing a series of wrongdoings, especially in the transfer of foreign footballers to play for a local club, related to an amount of money worth over US$300,000.

Vo Dong Lap, deputy Party Secretary and vice director of the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Kien Giang, has violated regulations on financial management and moral codes in lifestyle, according to the inspection commission of the Kien Giang Party Committee.

Many of his subordinates were involved in the wrongdoings, according to the commission.

Inspectors said Lap failed to record legal documents in the transfer of four foreign footballers to play for Kien Long Bank FC in Kien Giang at a total cost of VND4.5 billion ($209,700).

Earlier, Lap had been accused of lifting the transfer prices of striker Oseni from $55,000 to $70,000 and of player Tuluwase from $45,000 to $55,000 to pocket the differences.

In addition, it has been alleged that he asked three players including Oseni, Tuluwase, and Friday to pay him $3,000 each a year as commission for the transfer.

Provincial inspectors decided to forward the alleged wrongful spending of VND4.5 billion for transferring footballers for further investigation by police in the coming time.

Inspectors also pointed out that he failed to obey state regulations on the management of costs for sports development in his locality, involving VND1.56 billion ($72,700).

Local sports schools under Lap’s management made wrongful spending worth over VND900 million ($41,940) in total, according to inspectors.

Lap used his power to force agencies under his management to buy sports equipment at a shop owned by his wife from 2010 to 2014 worth almost VND1.7 billion ($79,200), inspections showed.

The same inspections indicated that his juniors implicated in the wrongdoings include Tran Huy Dam, Truong Thanh Toan, and Nguyen Tuan Anh, who are all heads of the Kien Giang sports training school; Ho Thanh Thao, an accountant; Tran Truong Hien, director of the Kien Giang sports center; Nguyen Quoc Vinh, the center’s vice director; and Nguyen Pham Dai Trang, an accountant.

Source Tuoitrenews

Vietnam beat Indonesia 1-0 yesterday in a friendly game for under-23 players in Hanoi to prepare for the 28th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, to be held from June 5 to 16 in Singapore.

Despite the win, the performance of the Vietnamese players failed to impress spectators thanks to their mistakes in passing the ball at My Dinh Stadium.

They were only able to create two chances and converted one of them.

In the 75th minute, a pass from the left side found midfielder Huu Dung before he headed it to striker Huy Toan for the only goal of the game.

At the beginning of the second half, Toan was set up in a good position in front of the Indonesian goal frame but his header went wide.

During the rest of the match, both sides gave a lackluster performance while Vietnamese goalkeeper Van Tien was never challenged.

Tien’s Indonesian counterpart Fadhil faced attacks three times.

The Vietnamese players have been training heavily and were not in their best form for the encounter.

Source Tuoitrenews

 Japanese Takashi Norimatsu expressed how impressed he was with Vietnam’s female footballers after becoming the head coach of the women’s national team on March 4, affirming that he would work hard to lift the national team to a new height.

In his first interview with the Vietnamese media under the new position, Norimatsu said that he had been convinced by the Vietnamese female team’s performance in the Asian Games semifinal clash against Japan last year, which was also one of the reasons why he decided to quit his job as director of the Ryukyu Football Academy in Okinawa and start the new challenge of coaching in Vietnam.

“That match still remains clear in my mind, with the Vietnamese female footballers’ capabilities having left a deep impression on me. I also watched the FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifier between Vietnam and Thailand last year, during which the Vietnamese side performed very well,” said Norimatsu.

“With that potential, I hope that as the national team head coach, I will make a significant contribution to bringing Vietnam’s women’s football to a new level,” he added.

Regarding the reason for his decision to work as coach of a women’s team, Norimatsu frankly shared that from the great potential of Vietnamese women’s football, he would like to seize the opportunity to challenge himself in this new position. He also expressed belief in a promising future with the Vietnamese women’s team despite having never coached women’s football before.

Although having little experience coaching female players, Norimatsu, 47, possesses an abundance of experience in youth football training in Japan. A former professional player, throughout his career spanning from 1987 to 1998, Norimatsu played for numerous clubs in Japan, Germany and Brazil. Norimatsu started a coaching career in 2000 and spent nine years as an assistant coach to youth football teams in Japan. He became the manager of the Tokishima Vortis U13 squad in 2008, and has been working as Director of the Ryukyu Academy since 2010.

Norimatsu’s curriculum vitae is highly impressive, not only due to his ability to speak three foreign languages: Portuguese, English and German, but also due to his two coaching diplomas: an A-class diploma from the Japan Football Association and an international diploma from the Football Association (FA).

On being asked about his personal football philosophy, Norimatsu shared: “The trend of modern football is combining attack and defence while highlighting the role of physical strength. This principle is applied to both men’s and women’s football. I think this is also one of the tactics my colleague Toshiya Miura is applying to the Vietnam men’s national team”.

Ahead of the 2015 AFF Women’s Championship scheduled in Ho Chi Minh City from May 1 to 10, Norimatsu revealed that he will not pose so much expectation on any certain success, but instead focus on realising small immediate goals in order to achieve the best aggregate results.

Source Nhan Dan