Interview with Cristian Rubio, Thang Long FC Cup 2012 referee

Good morning. It is known that you have been the referee with experience of 8 years in the home city of Barcelona, so please tell what strategy Vietnam should have in order to develop football like in Barcelona?
According to my experience it is obvious that the financial factor is important so that would be a good idea to establish a strong model and well built from the base, as for instance a Referee Committee (recruiting people interested in becoming a referee, promoting the figure of the referee, organizing lessons for players and also for referees regarding the main regulations of FIFA board, Fair Play…), or main football organisms as a Hanoian Federation of Football (committing itself for investment in pitches, licenses for players and referees, equipment and also about a Referee Committee).
Charity projects are always welcome and they can capture attention of many people. Vietnam is so far a country where I can see that you are really into these kind of projects. Faster is a good example since many professional teams from Europe already cooperated. That means that things are being done in a good way until now.

What about non-professional football in Barcelona?
In Barcelona and also in my country each Province has its own organism and all are regulated by what the main Federation says, in this case THE SPANISH FOOTBALL FEDERATION. This system has been working in the recent years and football became really popular sport done every weekend by lots of people – from kids to adults.
All the players are federated – the clubs own all the prepaid licenses of each player and staff – which means non-professional but belonging to a reliable organism which follows the rules of the professional one, thus all is being serious and well structured so people becomes quickly interested and new clubs and leagues were appearing in the recent years.

You have been in Vietnam and doing as a referee, how do you compare the non professional football between the 2 cities?
The quality of the football in Vietnam is not bad at all. There are really good players and also I could see that young and old people play together in the same team, as we do in Spain. So there is a healthy mix of experience and enthusiasm.
I insist that we just need to establish some order and “educate” the people in order to make a strong and united organism and thus build up leagues, championships and why not brush up all the professional football in Vietnam.

What do you think about developing the non professional football in particular, and football in Vietnam in general, in terms of improving the quality and professionalism?
That is what I mentioned in the last question. All is connected: Non professional and professional football must be united and both cooperate and build up together their own idea and philosophy of Vietnamese football. That is why must the professional part here takes an important role in order to capture attention from the non professional, let´s say that Professional football in Vietnam must be a mirror for the non professional, a role model.

TLFC cup 2012 brought together 32 teams from the experienced teams, to the newly established teams, you have any reviews about this tournament sir?
The first impressions were truly positive. This tournament must be created for the welfare of the people and to show how strong and football – sport in general – can unite the people. Lots of students were taking part in the opening, with music performances, interviews, sponsors… All well organized from my point of view. Let´s hope that every weekend we can get more and more fans and in a nearly future new leagues can come up.

Are there any new things about TLFC cup 2012 in terms of the rules?? Many of the audience are considering that a non professional tournament would have low quality referee, what do you think of that?
I honestly saw some little differences regarding the rules established in this tournament if we compare them with the non professional football in Europe (kicking in the ball instead of throwing it in for example). Is just one of the first serious tournaments so it is not a big deal and the rules can be modified. But, of course I do not mean that TLFC cup is not being serious. I was very surprised about how many people and also press and sponsors came to the pitch the opening day and I am sure that this tournament will have good repercussions in the nearly future.
The quality of the referees is not bad either. Well equipped and taking seriously their job. This is a new tournament which has been created for capturing attention of people and in the future probably will help to develop the non professional football and other projects, so we must let people keep doing this way and with some more time we will be able to carve a better future for Vietnamese football.

Thank you very much, Sir

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