The truth is exposed
On March 21, 2025, the Investigation Security Agency of Nghe An Provincial Police issued a Decision to prosecute the case and prosecute Nguyen Thi Tu (born in 1984, residing in Ky Son Commune, Tan Ky District, Nghe An Province) for the crime of "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations; Using fake documents of agencies and organizations"; and Tran Quoc Dung (born in 1971, residing in Ky Son Commune, Tan Ky District, Nghe An Province) for the crime of "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations", stipulated in Clause 2, Article 341, Penal Code.
It is known that Mrs. Tu is the mother of the player who brought the captain's armband of the U11 Song Lam Nghe An team to compete in the 2023 National U11 tournament, and Mr. Dung is the principal of Ky Son Primary School - where the young players study. In the Tan Ky District Social Insurance file, Ms. Tu's maternity leave (first child birth) was in 2010. However, in the birth certificate and application for player training, he was born in 2012.
According to Nguyen Thi Tu's testimony, because she wanted her child to train and compete at Song Lam Nghe An club, Tu personally and colluded with other subjects, including Tran Quoc Dung, to forge documents and papers to deceive the responsible people of the club and the authorities. Currently, the case is being further investigated to be handled in accordance with the provisions of law.
In fact, not only in the 2023 National U11 tournament but also in 2024, the Song Lam Nghe An U11 team continued to be doubted by public opinion. At that time, some teams spoke up to say that using players of the wrong age was unfair and affected the image of the tournament.
On September 9, 2024, the Disciplinary Board of the Vietnam Football Federation issued a fine of 10 million VND and banned U11 Song Lam Nghe An from participating in football tournaments organized by the federation for 2 years for age fraud. The team had all titles, cups, medals and bonuses revoked at the 2024 National U11 tournament. Head of the delegation Tran Quang Dung and coach Nguyen Quang Tho were also banned from activities for 2 years.
Players cheating on age, is it new or has been around for a long time?
The story of the true age of the players has been a hot topic for many years. More than 10 years ago, Cong Phuong was suspected of being a cheating player, with the premise that this player was actually born in 1993. However, after a series of controversies, everything finally came to an end and the striker's year of birth on paper was still kept unchanged as 1995.
In the past, giving up to play football was not uncommon. A coach in the V.League once recounted that he spent 2 years to play football. It was not until later, when he played at the U21 tournament, that he returned with old papers and lived to his true age.
Recalling the above story to see that many people still say that Vietnamese players are " brilliant and rapidly fading", but is everything simple like that? Because, the basis for evaluation depends on age, but is the issue of age in Vietnamese football really transparent or is there still many mysterious stories?
And after the incident involving young player Song Lam Nghe An was exposed, will there be any other cases that will be brought to light? It is known that at least for many parents who want to send their children to football training facilities, from now on they have "tales" to look at and avoid doing things illegal.
