Former Vietnamese sports leaders have suggested getting rid of the National Sports Festival for its ineffectiveness and failure to spearhead national sporting development.

The suggestion was shared by Duong Nghiep Chi, former head of the Vietnam Sport Science Institute and former deputy chief of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training; and Ha Quang Du, former minister and chairman of the Sports Committee under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

Vietnam and China are the only two countries in the world that organize national sports festivals every four years, Chi said, adding that Beijing has done so effectively over the past few decades while Hanoi has failed.

“The top two purposes of hosting a national sports festival is to select the best athletes for Asian Games and the Olympics and to spur sports training across the nation,” Chi said.

But Vietnam has done it the wrong way: taking part in Asian Games and the Olympics before going home to attend national sports festivals.

The encouragement of sports training has been marred by the ‘borrowing’ of athletes between provinces to ‘exchange’ results.

He said he would suggest scrapping national sports festivals, now organized in alternative host provinces, and using the associated funds to invest in sports at schools.

“Sports training at schools in Vietnam is now worse than Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar,” he complained.

Vietnam has lost the entire system of youth training due to the lack of investment in sports training at schools, Chi added. “Vietnamese sport has lost and will keep losing at international competitions.”

Sports training at schools is useful not only for international competitions but also for improving the physical fitness of each citizen, he noted. “Remember that nutrition and sport training are the two most important factors to decide the height of a person, followed by genes and the environment.”

The other official, Du, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the organization of national sports festivals has wasted state budget.

Previously, the sports industry planned to build a big sports house for a region that comprises many provinces. But now, neighboring provinces in the north like Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh and Thai Binh each has at least one sports house.

It is a waste if such sports houses host just one or two tournaments a year, he said.

Opening public facilities for the masses to train is also impossible due to the absence of investment for covering the costs of electricity and water.

Chi suggested organizing annual championships for individual sports instead of the national sports festival every four years.

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