On Monday evening, the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper hosted a gala night to announce the winners of the 2018 Fair Play Awards. This is the 7th time that the awards have been given to honour individuals and collectives with fair play actions in Vietnamese football.

This year, the organising board received over 20 nominations from experts and fans, to select the five best for the awards. With a great success at all levels in 2018, including the runners-up place at the AFC U23 Championship and the 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup trophy, the men's team players won the highest rankings of the awards. All five nominations were tied to the images of players from the Vietnamese men’s national U23 team to the senior squad.

Four players Bui Tien Dung, Doan Van Hau, Ha Duc Chinh and Nguyen Quang Hai of the Vietnam national football team, who joined Dieu uoc thu 7 (The Saturday Wish) TV show that helps realise participants’ dreams, won the first prize. The four-member group helped realise a dream from Tom (real name Nguyen Ba Thien Vinh) - a four-year-old little boy suffering brain cancer in his 33 months and had to undergo 16 radiotherapies and two operations.

Tom always wanted to meet his idols in the Vietnam U23 team who finished second at the AFC U23 Championship. Suddenly, the four team members met and played football with Tom, making his wish a reality. The players helped Tom realise his dream and inspire him to fight against cancer. Also from the meeting, the players promised Tom that they would win the AFF Cup 2018 and later they fulfilled that promise.

The second prize belongs to the Vietnam U23 team attending the AFC U23 Championship final match against Uzbekistan U23s with their snow raking action in the match. Vietnam and Uzbekistan U23s played under a snowstorm and the former conceded the opener from their rivals. Vietnam was awarded a free kick four minutes to the break in the first half. Because the ground was covered in snow, the Vietnamese players had to rake the snow together to clean the yard, creating the best conditions for Nguyen Quang Hai to net in a superb free kick to level the score at 1-1.

The third prize belongs to the image of defender Do Duy Manh of U23 Vietnam, holding a national flag on a "snow peak" at Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre after the AFC U23 Championship final match against Uzbekistan U23s. While his teammates sadly left the field after losing the match, Duy Manh took the national flag across the "snow peak" at the corner of the stadium, then he came to raise high the Vietnamese flag on the white snow and bowed to the flag. The beautiful image has won the hearts of many Vietnamese fans.

The fourth rank belongs to the Vietnam national football team celebrating a goal in their AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 group match against Cambodia by holding the No. 9 shirt of striker Nguyen Van Toan, who could not play due to an unfortunate injury. In the fifth place is veteran striker Nguyen Anh Duc of Vietnam national football team as he prevented the home fans from throwing water bottles and objects to protest against the referee who was ignoring a situation where a Malaysian gave an elbow to Vietnamese striker Cong Phuong during their group stage match at the AFF Cup 2018.

Also at the gala, head coach Park Hang-seo was presented with the Fair Play Honour Award, a lifelong achievement award for individuals and groups who contribute and influence the development of Vietnamese football. The title is not voted on but selected only by the organisers. In 2018, Park contributed greatly in the history achievement of Vietnamese football.

Coach Park and his players also signed their names on items to be auctioned in support of Vu A Dinh Scholarship Fund and “For beloved Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly)” club’s fund. The organisers will auction the items to raise funds to support scholarships for disadvantaged ethnic minority students and those in sea and island areas, as well as children of naval soldiers and fishermen.