AFC Champions League: V-League clubs should not be "kicked out"

Based on previous seasons' performance,Vietnam has one AFC Champions League play-off spot (second qualifying round) and two AFC Cup 2019 spots. Thus, Hanoi will automatically participate in the AFC Champions League play-off round. If they lose, Hanoi will be relegated to the AFC Cup, where the National Cup champion B.Binh Duong is located.

First blame yourself

The V-League champion has the responsibility to improve the face of Vietnamese football. Photo: Internet

Currently, the Southeast Asian national championship clubs are not highly rated. Last season, FLC Thanh Hoa (Vietnam), Ceres-Negros (Philippines), Muangthong United and Chiangrai United (Thailand) were all defeated by East Asian clubs such as Kashiwa Reysol (Japan); Suwon Samsung Bluewings (Korea) or two Chinese teams, Shanghai SIPG and Tianjin Quanjian.

Since the AFC Champions League was officially established (2002 - present) Thailand actually has a club that has gone the furthest in the AFC Champions League. That is BEC Tero Sasana (now renamed Police Tero FC), the team that reached the final in 2002.

That season they were drawn in Group A alongside Asian giants Kashima Antlers, Daejeon Citizen, and Shanghai Shenhua. Finishing the group stage with 7 points, Tero Sansana went on to beat Uzbekistan's Pakhtakor in the semi-finals and 3-2 on aggregate before losing to Al Ain in the two-legged final (2-1).

Among the V-League clubs, HAGL and Long An were the teams with the best records, even finishing 2nd in their respective groups! However, in both those times, the competition format only allowed the top club to continue. In 2004, HAGL earned 7 points when they were in the same group as Dalian Shinde, Krung Thai Bank, and PSM Makassar.

In the group stage of the AFC Champions League last year, only one club from Southeast Asia, Buriram United (Thailand), participated because they were directly entered into the group stage. In 2019, in addition to Thailand, there was also a representative from Malaysia who went directly into the group stage.

The level is still low, the clubs in V-League do not have many favorable conditions to compete from the play-off round, so for many years now they often lose early and do not get points added by AFC to the achievements of continental tournaments, causing V-League to be continuously relegated, so the opportunity to participate in Asian Cups such as AFC Champions League in the group stage is extremely difficult.

AFC's responsibility

It seems that with the current force, Hanoi Club is not highly appreciated by AFC. Photo: Internet

According to the AFC draw on November 22, Hanoi will meet a representative from Thailand in the second qualifying round, and if they win, they will meet a representative from China in the play-off round. If coach Chu Dinh Nghiem and his team pass the two play-off matches, they will be placed in Group E of the 2019 Champions League. On the contrary, the champion team Vietnam will be relegated to Group F of the 2019 AFC Cup.

For some reason, the ball has not yet rolled but AFC believes that Hanoi FC will check-out from the AFC Champions League, so it has put the Capital team on “standby mode” in a tournament lower than the AFC Cup 2019 in the framework of Group F with opponents Tampines Rovers (Singapore), Nagaworld (Cambodia). Meanwhile, the 4th team of Group F is still left with the note: Yangon United or Zwekapin United of Myanmar!

AFC has made the public understand that Vietnam's Hanoi FC will definitely not pass (or skip) the AFC Champions League play-off round to participate in the AFC Cup. And they will definitely secure Vietnam's second place in the AFC Cup 2019 because "Hanoi will be eliminated from the AFC Champions League anyway".

The situation becomes confusing, even if Hanoi passes the play-off round and takes a place in Group E of the AFC Champions League, Group F of the AFC Cup will only have 3 teams. AFC stipulates that Hanoi is a case where there is no other club to replace them (no standby club). This is very unreasonable in the organization of professional football tournaments, no one organizes a play-off round and then has to lack teams to compete in the group stage.

Weigh

VFF is facing calculations, either writing a petition to AFC so that Vietnamese football is not treated unreasonably like that, or encouraging clubs to play really well so that AFC “gets into trouble” and improves its image. The fact that V-League clubs are “played to pieces” in the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup is real, which makes AFC have an unfair and unreasonable assessment and perception when dividing the groups.

But if Hanoi participates in the AFC Champions League and still has a poor performance like Thanh Hoa team, AFC will "kick the ball" to VFF, the interests of the clubs and Vietnamese football will continue to suffer. Everything seems simple but it turns out that it is not!