It is not the ‘fashion’ but it is no longer unusual for rich men on the Vietnamese stock market to own a football club.

Nguyen Duc Kien, the boss of Hanoi ACB and Hanoi FCs.

Ranking 14th in the top 100 rich people on the stock exchange, Vice Chair of the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) Nguyen Duc Kien is the owner of the Hanoi ACB FC. Kien is also the football boss that attracted public attention the most in 2011.

Without big changes in business, Kien’s assets based on securities reduced by 5 percent, to nearly VND760 billion ($36.1 million), mainly due to the reduction of ACB share price. However, this fall is unremarkable compared to the common reduction of the stock market so Kien still moved forward by 9 grades to be the 14th rich man on the stock market.

Before the V-League 2011 closing ceremony, Kien was not as famous as Doan Nguyen Duc of Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC or Vo Quoc Thang of Dong Tam Long An FC. However, with the speech that directly criticized the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), Kien is considered the pioneer in reforming Vietnamese football. Kien greatly contributed to the establishment of the Vietnam Professional Football (VPF) Company, which replaces VFF to run the Super Leage.

Kien’s Hanoi ACB FC played badly at V-League 2011 and felt to the First Division Tournament as of 2012. The boss showed his richness by buying Hoa Phat Hanoi FC, which plays at V-League or now Super League 2012.

This FC was then renamed as Hanoi FC. Kien has invested a lot of money to recruit famous players, including Vietnam’s top striker Le Cong Vinh, with a VND15 billion ($700,000). Yet, this FC was defeated by Hanoi T&T in its first match of the Super League 2012 last week.

Boss Do Quang Hien of Hanoi T&T FC had a successful year when his FC, Hanoi T&T and the FC that he is the main sponsor – SHB Danang – were in the top three of V-League 2011. However, his assets based on shares dropped by a half in 2011 owing to the fall of share prices, from VND256 billion to VND124 billion ($6.2 million).

Meanwhile, boss Tran Dinh Long of Hoa Phat Hanoi FC had an unlucky year in many areas. His assets based on securities lost by nearly 55 percent, to VND1.34 trillion ($63.8 million), falling from the 4th to the 9th in the list of top 100 people on the stock market.

In addition, he sold Hoa Phat Hanoi FC to boss Kien of Hanoi ACB. At the meeting to review V-League 2011, Kien disclosed that Long sold the FC to him because Long was so dispirited with Vietnamese football.

2011 was the year that boss Doan Nguyen Duc of Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC, who held the second position in the top 100 of richest people on the stock market, prepared for a new period of development.

Though his assets based on securities lost more than VND8.5 trillion ($404.6 million) to drop to nearly VND4.35 trillion ($207 million), the most powerful businessman in Southeast Asia is “slowing down” to prepare for new breakthroughs.

Duc has stated to gradually reduce profit from real estate and increase profit from rubber. The theory of sustainable growth is now applied in football.

After success in the early years of V-League, Hoang Anh Gia Lai was always at the middle of the ranking list in the last four years. However, it is the only FC in Vietnam that has built a young footballer training system, with the assistance for world famous FCs. Experts said that this system is the ground for the FC to develop in the future.

One of the new faces of football and the stock market last year is boss Nguyen Duc Thuy of Saigon Xuan Thanh FC. After purchasing the Vincom Securities Trading Company helped Thuy ranked 193rd among the richest men in the stock market, with over VND30.7 billion ($1.5 million).

Dang Thanh Tam, the major sponsor of Saigon and Navibank Saigon FCs.

Thuy made big surprise when he recruited many players of the national squad to his Saigon Xuan Thanh FC. As a result, this team was the champion of the First Division Tournament and joins the Super League 2012. But boss Thuy stated to be bored with football and sold the FC to the Vietnam Football Media (VFM) at the price of VND60 billion ($3 million).

With the new owner, Saigon Xuan Thanh was re-named Saigon FC. However, the FC’s Chair Luu Quang Lam unexpectedly resigned after only two weeks and his successor is Thuy.

Chairman of the Saigon Investment Group Dang Thanh Tam does not hold the presidency at any FC but he is the major sponsor of Navibank Saigon, which plays at the Super League and SQC Binh Dinh, at the First Division Tournament.

His shares lost more than 70 percent of value in 2011 and Tam had nearly VND1.4 trillion ($70 million), falling from the 3rd to the 8th position but his FC, Navibank Saigon won the National Cup in late August.

The link between big bosses and football is quite popular in the world and in Vietnam. Many of them invest in football because they have passion for this sport, but some admit that this is an effective tool of investment and marketing. However, in Vietnam, earning profit from football is the future tense.

Source: VNN