Vietnam footballers take aim at politics

Hanoi

A GROUP of old pals trot onto the pitch for what looks like an ordinary football match in Vietnam. But it is actually a sly act of subversion in the authoritarian state, in which this team of political dissidents turned to football to circumvent government efforts to block their meetings. The game lasts just 45 minutes before security guards storm the field and kick the players off the pitch - a regular disruption for a team that is constantly dodging the watchful eye of the communist regime.

"We have played the so-called mouse-and-cat game with the police and security forces since we established our football team," founding member and activist Nguyen Chi Tuyen told AFP. The No-U FC squad was formed in 2011 by Mr Tuyen and some 40 others who had rallied against China in a series of protests over disputed waters in the South China Sea, where the two communist countries have overlapping territorial claims.