Cancellation of tournaments - a serious disease of Vietnamese football
Vietnamese football has been professional for more than 20 years, but stories of teams suddenly leaving the tournament still happen all the time.
The 2023/2024 season has just officially ended, Ba Ria - Vung Tau has announced that it will not participate in the National First Division next season. The reason given by the team's Board of Directors is lack of operating funds. What a pity for the team with one of the most beautiful stadiums in Vietnam.
Thus, with the above decision, the team nicknamed "Sea Eagles" will be demoted to the National Third Division. In the past, Ba Ria - Vung Tau also refused to participate in the 2013 National First Division, and at the same time disbanded the team.
Following Ba Ria - Vung Tau, another team will not participate in the 2024/2025 National First Division, which is Dinh Huong Phu Nhuan. It is worth mentioning that the team with registered residence in Ho Chi Minh City just won the right to be promoted on June 17.
It is likely that the 2024/2025 National First Division will only have 10 participating teams. And who knows, on the opening day or during the tournament, there may be more teams that drop out, for example, due to lack of funds.
According to statistics, since the 2021 season until now, every season of the National First Division has had a team withdraw from the tournament. Before Ba Ria - Vung Tau were Tay Ninh and Gia Dinh (2021), An Giang (2022), Saigon and Can Tho (2023), Binh Thuan (2023/2024).
It can be said that the situation of football teams frequently dropping out of tournaments is a serious disease of Vietnamese football. As long as the development of football teams still depends on the inspiration of the owners, it is very likely that similar cases like Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Dinh Huong Phu Nhuan... will still occur.
