In November 2024, Mr. Duc (Chairman Doan Nguyen Duc) spoke up to confirm that there was no story of Hoang Anh Gia Lai club cheating players' salaries.
That was the time when the mountain town team lost the lawsuit, FIFA decided to punish them by not allowing them to participate in international transfers until they resolved the issue of compensation for the $20,000 contract with foreign player Martin Dzilah.
In the context of Hoang Anh Gia Lai's image being affected after the penalty from FIFA, Mr. Duc broke the silence with a strong statement: "In the past, Hoang Anh Gia Lai only gave money to players, but never took 20,000 USD from them. That amount is only equal to the monthly salary of a foreign player."
This is also the last time Mr. Duc talked about a football topic. With his determination, Hoang Anh Gia Lai resolved this troublesome story before the Lunar New Year 2025. The Pleiku team completed the visa application and provided a plane ticket back home for Dzilah.
Hoang Anh Gia Lai's image is guaranteed, FIFA also lifted the ban on activities in the transfer market.
Not only with Hoang Anh Gia Lai, nearly a year before, Mr. Duc predicted the difficult situation that the Vietnamese team would have to go through under coach Philippe Troussier.
In January 2024, when the Vietnamese team had just stopped at the 2023 Asian Cup, Mr. Duc frankly told the press: "Football has wins and losses, but losing to Indonesia and being eliminated early, coach Troussier certainly did not meet the expectations of Vietnamese fans.
I have never seen Vietnam playing against Indonesia and being so disadvantaged. It was a deadlock, there was no chance of winning, to be fair. Our playing style was not as good as theirs, we lacked cohesion, lacked attacking ideas, our resistance was weaker than theirs, and we were not as brave as them because we had our best players like Hung Dung, Ho Tuan Tai, Van Thanh, Van Toan, Duy Manh on the bench."
Indeed, two months later, the Vietnamese team continued to lose two matches against Indonesia with scores of 0-1 and 0-3, thereby stopping at the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup. Coach Troussier also had to leave the "hot seat" amid criticism from fans.
The Vietnamese team was then led by new coach Kim Sang-sik. But it took 9 months for fans to find joy again when the home team convincingly won the 2024 ASEAN Cup.
That was also the rare time Mr. Duc expressed his personal opinion in the past 2 years, perhaps because he was busy with his own business.
However, in the development process of our country's football, experts and fans really need voices and constructive criticism from the bosses, and one of them is Mr. Duc!
