After winning the world bronze medal in France in mid-September, female player Nguyen Hoang Yen Nhi shared on her personal Facebook page, expressing her dissatisfaction with VBSF that she and another teammate had to pay out of their own pocket to compete, including airfare, travel, and food for 6 days, which was about 55 million VND/person (the World 3-Cushion Carom Federation paid for the hotel). In March 2024, VBSF announced that it would collect fees to become a member of VBSF, with 500,000 VND/player/year and 200,000 VND (paid once) to make a membership card. The question is, has the Vietnam Billiards & Snooker Federation done a good job of connecting member federations, international organizations, and socialized resources?
On the sidelines of the Vietnam Sports Economic Forum 2024 held on October 17, Mr. Dang Ha Viet - Director of the Department of Physical Training and Sports shared with Lao Dong: “Regarding the story of player Yen Nhi, there are two issues that need to be clarified. Firstly, from the Federation's perspective, the Department of Physical Training and Sports has issued a document directing the Federation to work with all parties so as not to affect the reputation of the industry. VBSF itself has not done a good job of attracting resources to have more investment and funding to support athletes. If each member only contributes 500,000 VND, that amount will not be enough to pay for bonuses.
Also at the Vietnam Sports Economic Forum 2024, Mr. Dang Ha Viet said: “From a policy perspective, the sports industry still has some problems. The Vietnam Olympic Committee, Federations and Associations have not fully promoted their functions and tasks, have not been proactive in calling for and creating events and values of their own to attract sponsorship. Only a few Federations have called for socialized resources in training and selecting athletes to compete abroad. The rest, most Federations only stop at calling for socialized resources for a few small-scale event organization activities. This is also a good thing, but the important thing is still to find socialized investment sources to train athletes.”
The Director of the Department of Physical Education and Sports emphasized that there are approximately 2,500 sports tournaments each year, of which the sports industry needs to participate in at least 700 tournaments, but the central budget only guarantees 170 tournaments and the remaining resources come from local budgets and socialization. Obviously, the Federations and Associations have not coordinated to the maximum, although they have shared, they have not contributed a large proportion, there needs to be reinforcement and clear solutions.
Regarding the issue of socialization in sports, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Deputy Director of the Social Affairs Department - Central Economic Committee - said: "The phrase socialization was mentioned at the 9th National Congress of Delegates, in which the sports industry was given priority early attention. The Government has issued amendments and supplements to many documents supporting sports in general and sports economy in particular, contributing to attracting resources from the whole society to invest in sports.
Mr. Hung added: In the immediate future, we need to develop a plan and build a system of mechanisms for sports economic activities; build a large enough enterprise with enough international competitiveness... All must coordinate together, from ministries, branches, and management agencies from central to local levels. Regarding institutions, functional agencies must have good intellectual property and copyright laws, and institutionalize all other related legal documents for greater consistency. In particular, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Department of Physical Education and Sports must proactively coordinate with other agencies to build, thereby attracting the best socialized resources."
