Fight against corruption in Vietnam

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Dear badminton fans,

This is the last letter that I have sent to the Vietnam Badminton Federation, that systematically tries to destroy players that are not following along with the corruption of the leaders in their country.

In London players get the blame for bad behavior, but it is not the players that are to blame. It's the pooh-bahs in the national federations that are killing our sport with corruption and the abuse of their power to suppress players and force them to do things they don't want.

In this case it is a player from Vietnam that gives everything for her sport and uses her savings to follow a coaching education in Denmark as well as playing in this part of the world. A player like this is getting 200 USD salary a month and her whole family is helping her to go to Europe. The Vietnam Badminton Federation pays nothing. It only needs to enter her into the tournaments she would like to play. She perhaps gets only one chance to do this and what is her own federation doing? Nothing. It simply refuses to enter her into the international tournaments because the president doesn't like she is doing things on her own. The Secretary General Mr. Sang is doing all he can to make sure this player can play no tournaments in Europe. We have been trying to get her into the Belgium International and the Dutch open and started this already in july 2012. Mr. Sang is hiding behind all kind of rules just to make sure she will have a disappointment and she will listen in the future to this corrupted leader of the Badminton Federation of Vietnam.

The player is well-qualified to play these tournaments but because of a BWF-rule that only national federations can enter players she cannot play without the help of people like Mr. Sang. The BWF has to realize that this kind of rule works very good in countries where there is no corruption. However, in countries like Vietnam it makes the weak role that players have only waeker. It is about time that BWF takes care of situations like this and makes sure that federations can't coerce players and misuse their power.

I don't use her full name because the player will likely get into trouble when she returns to Vietnam. The federation already fired the player one time and tries to make life difficult. For myself it can also become a problem. I have worked as a coach in Asia before and when I write things like this, I will get a very hard time to keep on working has a coach. But I want to fight against corruption and let players know that I always stand with them.

I think this kind of thing is just as bad for badminton as what happened in London. So please help the fight against corruption and people who use their power in the wrong way. Please send text messages, faxes or emails to the Vietnam Badminton Federation to make clear your position on this issue.

Vietnam Badminton Federation

• 36 Tran Phu Str, Hanoi, Vietnam
• President: Mr Le Dang Xu
• Secretary General: Mr Le Thanh Sang
• Telephone: 84 4 747 2079
• Fax: 84 4 733 6046
• Email: vbf@fpt.vn

Ron Daniëls

If the press wants to learn more about the way the Vietnam Badminton Federation is working, please feel free to contact me on privecoach-at-yahoo-dot-com.