The contract between the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and digital TV service provider AVG to award the latter the exclusive telecast rights for 20 years starting from the 2012 season is null and avoid for its violation of several laws in Vietnam, said prominent lawyers.
Lawyer Truong Xuan Tam, vice chairman of the provincial Ba Ria Vung Tau Bar, said the deal signed last December goes against civil law, competition law and commerce law.
Basically, it is a contract to sell the commercial right of football games, so it must comply with regulations of the Civil Law, which stipulates that only those who have legal right or have proxy by owners are authorized to sell a product.
The recipient must also be a lawful party to buy the product, Tam quoted from an article of the civil law.
But Vietnam’s football governing body (VFF) violates this regulation as the commercial right of football games belongs to member clubs of the VFF, as ruled by Clause 53 of Sports Law, and the VFF has received no written approval as proxy from the clubs.
The other point is that the contract was approved by VFF and AVG on December 8, 2011 when AVG was not licensed as a TV station, so they were not authorized to produce a TV program.
Tam said this means AVG was not then permitted to a enter football stadium to film the games but it still holds an exclusive deal that bans all other TV and media outlets from broadcasting and commenting on the public events.
Lastly, Vietnam’s bidding law says any contract with a value higher than VND500 million (US$23,800) must go through a public bid to select the winner, but in this case the contract essentially appointed a bidder, as it organized no public bid. The value of the football telecast right between VFF and AVG is VND6 billion ($285,700) a season.
Lawyer Ngo Quy Linh, from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar, also noted that the 20-year exclusive deal violated competition law and commerce law.
With those clear violations, the lawyers claim the deal must be announced null and void by a court, though it is now under inspection by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
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