SLNA fans beautify Vietnam stadiums

The fan club has a large force of female members who are powerful enough to stamp out not only violence but also inappropriate behaviors or bad words on stands.

The club even organizes a beauty contest every two years to create events for fans besides football matches during competition season.

At the 2011 contest, over 100 contestants across the nation who love SLNA and were willing to contribute to the club were shortlisted to enter the qualifiers. Dinh Thi Phuong, 23, crowned the event soon after graduating from the environment management faculty of the Ho Chi Minh City Agriculture and Forestry University.

Now, Phuong and dozens of other nice-looking girls always accompany SLNA to support the team during competition and create a ‘yellow wave’ in most stadiums in the nation.

Truong Thanh Tung, a male member of the SLNA fan club, admitted that, “the presence of beautiful fans in the club has changed other fans, especially heated male fans, in the way they support the team.”

Before, a fan might have sworn at any play with which they disagreed, an act that would incite others to follow. Nice-looking women around may help to ‘soften’ the aggressive behavior.

Before, SLNA was punished because their fans engaged in violence in the stands, such as starting fires and destroying seats. Once, authorities of the Thong Nhat Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City had to use water cannons to break up a disorderly crowd of SLNA fans.

These incidents have not been repeated this season, which has been going on for four months.

In recent matches in Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, the SLNA fan club organized a parade of buses to carry 6,000 fans to support the team.

During last weekend’s game with Ninh Binh, 22,000 SLNA fans packed their home Vinh Stadium. This has not happened for many seasons.

SLNA FC director Ho Van Chiem boasted that the SLNA fan club has added success to the team and Vietnamese football.

The fan club assigns staff to prepare uniforms, flags, and other support to amplify their image and have fun in the stands.

“Actually, the fan club was established 11 years ago, but it had no experience in organizing events so it failed in attracting fans to come to the stadium,” said Ho Van Kien, vice chairman of the fan club.

Thanks to the SLNA fan club, other stadiums have become more crowded and drawn more home spectators to the stands when the teams compete with SLNA, Kien said.