We’ve always loved the kids and the parents involved in junior football in Vietnam!

Helping Junior Football in Vietnam

The Vietnam Swans offer a broad range of support to the many charities and aligned interests in Vietnam. One organisation we’ve been working with are the Saigon Colts. Our support for them is wide-ranging and entirely voluntary:

1. We attend requested open days where they’d like us to provide players to run activities for children.
2. We attend requested events in conjunction with their stakeholders, usually to run activities for children.
3. We send players to attend Saturday training sessions.
4. We offer support for other special requests (eg. equipment, translation, football gear and whatever else our Club or Members can help with).

The following specific Swan’s activities were offered to support junior football in Saigon this year:

• 8 players attended the RMIT Open Day to play games with interested kids, including Colts members. This was a 2 hour session, plus travel time to and from RMIT.
• 15 players made themselves available for the 2 hour session for the South Melbourne District’s visit to Saigon, requiring travel time to and from RMIT.
• 35 players attended an AFL-X tournament that had been specifically scheduled in conjunction with South Melbourne District’s visit to Saigon, so that the parents of junior football players could also participate.
• Son of Swan’s Life Member Kyle Hackenberg, Johno, produced a video for South Melbourne District’s 2018 visit to Saigon in conjunction with the Colts, requiring 20 hours of time for preparation, shooting and editing.
• At least 10 players made themselves available (Bill, James, Micka, Rod, Thomas, Thomas, Vinh, Vinh, Dang, Tim) for the 1.5 hour sessions on Saturdays with the Colts, requiring travel time to and from AIS. This group of players made at least 20 individual visits.
• 6 player-parents participated in the 1.5 hour sessions on Saturdays (Shane, Trang, Luke, Chia, Phil, Laurey), requiring travel time to and from AIS.
• Local players of the Vietnam Swans translated an AusKick coaching resource into Vietnamese in 2018. The adaptation of this resource required the context-specific knowledge of local development success stories, Swan’s Members Dinh Anh, Vinh and Vinh.

It’s important to understand that the Swans have prioritised the Colts throughout 2018 to deliver these activities. We’ve found time to assist junior football in a season that included: the debut of the Swans very first women’s team; the largest Grand Final event that the club has ever run; a Comedy Night starring Merrick Watts and other talent; international tours to Penang, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Kanchanaburi and multiple trips to Phnom Penh; domestic games in Hanoi, Saigon and Vung Tau; plus charity activity with Swim Vietnam, Loreto Vietnam, Niem Son School, The Centre for Protection of Children in Vung Tau, Green Bamboo and the Thanh Loc Project. We also train most Saturday afternoons on the opposite side of Saigon. Because of these ambitious activities conducted by the Club across South East Asia, we’ve clearly communicated to the Colts that it is not possible to arrange weekly attendance at their Saturday Sessions.

Unprovoked Public Criticism from an Individual

Unfortunately, throughout December 2018, we were subject to a unprecedented, unprovoked and sustained series of public facebook posts from a certain individual at the Saigon Colts, questioning our support.

We believe our Members and our stakeholders can understand the support we’ve offered junior football in Saigon at a time when the Vietnam Swans have been busier than ever. We are proud of the level of support we offered the Colts in 2018. It was a significant uplift on 2017.

In fact, the volume of assistance from the Swans and Swan’s Members is considerably more than the 100 hours that was claimed in our post. That figure used conservative calculations for the above activities and was only added to the post after public criticism of the Club had begun. The above activities have been communicated to the certain individual, who appears uninterested in recognising the breath of contributions by our Club and our Members.

Some of the resources which were prepared with translation assistance from Vietnam Swans Members Dinh Anh, Vinh and Vinh. 

We have also been criticised by the certain individual for the way we presented our volunteer contributions in the post. It is clear that activity by the Swans in service of the Colts was presented as a very small amount of total Club activity in 2018: at 2,000 words in total length, 150 words of the criticised article concerned activities with the Colts. The section about the Swan’s contributions to charity was the third of five highlights we spoke about for the 2018 season, and within this section, the Colts were presented as the third of five activities that Swan members had engaged in for charity. This post was one of only two website posts for the season about activities with the Colts.

A Path Forward for Junior Football in Vietnam

None of our comments imply any criticism of the work done by the administrators of the Saigon Colts in delivering the program of Saturday sessions during 2018. They have devoted countless hours to the cause and should be praised for their efforts.

However, our Code of Conduct outlines the Club’s expectations of all those who participate in our training, games and events. As the certain individual involved in these incidents attends Club events, a full explanation has been requested of their actions in relation to social media that are unnecessarily bringing the Club’s reputation into disrepute. The individual will be suspended from all Club’s activities for a period of at least 6 months if their conduct is not rectified immediately and fully explained in due course.

We regret having to take action such as this and it places questions on our ability to support junior football in the same way in future years. We appreciate your ongoing support in coaching this certain individual to a reasonable outcome that recognises the facts of the matter. Ultimately, both organisations are seeking to grow football in Vietnam. The Swans remain fully committed to supporting the growth of junior football in Saigon, as shown by our actions in 2018.

This post was authored on 24 December 2018.