VietNamNet Bridge – Newly-elected chairman Le Hung Dung of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) expected that the State will legalize football betting early because this brings a lot of benefits.

VFF Chair Le Hung Dung.

"The plan to legalize football betting was submitted to the authorities 14 years ago. We hope that the State will soon pass it,” Dung said at the recent VFF Congress.

“If we do not legalize football betting, there will be three problems. Firstly, the State will lose a huge amount of tax revenue every year. Secondly, the state cannot control betting activities. Thirdly, many people will always be in the status of illegal betting or non-compliance with the law," Dung analyzed.

He said that in 2000 he led a delegation to Singapore, the UK and some other countries to study football betting scheme.

According to Singaporean experts, Vietnam’s football betting market could reach $2 billion per year. The VFF chairman hoped that if the football betting is legalized, part of the profits from betting will be invested in football development, infrastructure for football to implement the football development strategy.

After being elected as VFF Chair, Dung also vowed to invest heavily in the women’s football team and the U19 Vietnam.

"We will give the best to the women’s team so it can win a ticket to the World Cup 2015 in Canada. The U19 team will also be invested in order to gain high performance at the Asia U19 finals at the end of the year and can compete at the World U20 finals in the future," he pledged.

The VFF chairman also stated to take drastic measures to change the face of V-League.

"Vietnam football has a lot of problems. I cannot solve all of them at the same time. I will focus on referees and supervisors,” he said.

Dung also said that he would personally find sponsors to have VND383 billion ($18.2 million) for football in 2014 as proposed plans.

Nguyen Nam