In the evening of 24/02/2016, at Vuon Hong, Rex Hotel, the 2015 Fair Play Award Gala was organized in a solemn atmosphere but still maintained the color of the football feast by the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper.
The program took place in a cozy and solemn atmosphere with exciting and surprising performances until the last minute. Mr. Vo Quoc Thang was elected as the 2015 Fair Play Award winner by the assessment board of the HCMC Law Newspapers for his tireless contributions to Vietnam football.
Reportedly, for more than 10 years of football business, FC Manager Thang has never used his power and authority to benefit the football club or himself. Manager Thang has shared his coach to the national football team and vigorously laid the foundation and support the clean football sportsmanship in response to fans’ expectation.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu – Vice Chairwoman of HCMC People’s Committee hands the 2015 Fair Play Award to Mr. Vo Quoc Thang for his tireless contributions to the national football
Mr. Vo Quoc Thang shares his feelings upon winning the 2015 Fair Play Award
VPF Chairman works without salary
Since being the manager of Long An FC until becoming the Chairman of VPF, Mr. Thang has always kept his heart clean and transparent for the national football.
In mid-September 2011, when the HCMC Law Newspaper held the Seminar “Enterprises doing football business and the direction for Vietnam football”, we gave Mr. Vo Quoc Thang a call and he responded enthusiastically. Many constructive opinions were given in the seminar by football club managers, and especially only a few months later, Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) was born. At that time, Mr. Vo Quoc Thang was overwhelmingly elected by the football businessmen to chair the Board of Directors of VPF, and upon assuming the chairman position, he declared to serve the Vietnam football, not for profit, so he would not receive any remuneration.
Over the past five years, VPF Chairman Vo Quoc Thang and his associates have made great efforts to gradually bring Vietnam football tournaments on track to professionalism, in response to expectations of football fans.
Although without salary, VFF Chairman does not work half-heartedly. Just last year, Mr. Vo Quoc Thang traveled to Ca Mau Province by himself to solve difficulties of the football club of this Province when learning that they could not afford to join the 2016 Footbal League Championship due to lack of money. Mr. Thang showed Ca Mau Province how to do football business based on the model that he studied abroad and was applying to Long An Football Club.
Simple things and tears of Manager Thang
Manager Thang said that the reason for him to get involved in football business was from the Vietnam team’s defeat in the 1998 Tiger Cup final round because of Sasi Kumar’s back (Singapore). At Hang Day football stadium, he cried like a child for regret, and after that, he decided to develop the Long An Worker FC to join youth football tournaments and then directly V-League Cup in 2001.
Manager Thang always pioneers in the football anti-corruption and sets fair play criteria to football players both on and off pitch. Long An FC players are known as transparent, and for many years, the Fair Play Award of the HCMC Law Newspapers has been granted to Tai Em and Nhat Tan in honour for their contributions on the pitch for their nice gesture and fair play.
Manager Thang marked an impressive record by inviting the good coach Calisto to lead Long An team to win the V-League championship for two consecutive years (2001-2002), yet he was also willing to cede the Portuguese strategist to the Vietnam national football team. When Calisto and his players won the AFF Cup in 2008, Manager Thang shed happy tears again after Vietnam football team beat Thai football team in retaliation of the defeat that hurt him 10 years ago.
Last year, when he watched Tuan Tai of SL Nghe An scoring a goal and shared the shirt with the words “I love you mom so much!”, VPF Chairman Vo Quoc Thang cried again. The next day, Manager Thang wrote a letter to Tuan Tai: “I am really thrilled with your training effort and appreciate your love and gratefulness to your parent who has nurtured and taught you into a good person.”
Acording to plo.vn
![]() I have been supporting the Fair Play Award right from the early days of establishment, and I am thankful for the HCMC Law Newspaper’s professional ideas and organization. The Fair Play Award has a great meaning in guiding, educating and encouraging noble acts for football players both on and of pitch. Personally, I am so surprised to receive this prestigious award because I have never thought that I would some day become the winner of this Award. |