What V.League needs to learn from J.League and Thai League

In addition to professional clubs focusing on youth training, preparing the next generation of players, investing in the transfer market, and adjusting the match schedule, foreign players are one of the important factors that bring appeal to any Premier League. However, despite great efforts in adjusting and supplementing the regulations, V.League is still one step behind the Thai National Championship.

In recent years, the V.League National Championship has focused on two issues. That is to encourage clubs to focus on youth training by requiring clubs participating in the tournament to register an official roster of at least 3 Vietnamese players aged 16 to 22 (as of the opening day of the tournament).

At the same time, efforts are being made to find new players through the policy that clubs are allowed to register a maximum of 1 Vietnamese player of foreign origin; a maximum of 1 foreign player of Vietnamese origin; a maximum of 3 foreign players. This will create opportunities for players who wish to play for the national team in the future.

However, there is a huge difference between V.League and advanced football leagues such as J.League (Japan) or most recently Thai League. Vietnam's National Championship not only has fewer participating teams, but also has not opened its doors to Southeast Asian players. Specifically, J.League has 18 teams, the Japan Football Federation also stipulates that Japanese clubs are allowed to receive 3 players of Asean origin and are not counted as foreign players. This new policy has helped many Southeast Asian players to join J.League, but most of them come from Thailand.

Meanwhile, the Thai League with 16 teams also has a maximum slot for Southeast Asian players. Accordingly, the Thai League 1 season 2023/2024 limits the number of player registrations in Southeast Asia to 3 instead of unlimited as before. However, in the list of 11 players on the field, there will still be 3 Southeast Asian players appearing at the same time. This open policy has helped the Thai League always be a promised land for other quality players from Southeast Asia to move here to play football such as Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia.

The Thai League is also known as a stage for many players from Japan, Korea and many other countries. This contributes to creating healthy competition, opportunities for Thai players to compete and the attractiveness of the tournament. Because the appearance of many stars from other countries will attract the attention of audiences in that country.

Although the two football backgrounds of Vietnam and Thailand have differences in development, they still have similarities in the quality of players. And of course, Vietnamese players can play in the Thai League and vice versa. However, the number of Vietnamese players who can play in Thailand can be counted on the fingers and not all players have a place for themselves. We can mention Dang Van Lam and Luong Xuan Truong.

However, Thai football still wants to “trade” with V.League so that players from both countries can play in the other country. But with V.League, the biggest obstacle is that if a Southeast Asian or larger Asian player comes to a Vietnamese football field, he will be counted as a foreign player. Therefore, that is the biggest barrier to increasing competition and diversity for clubs in Vietnam.

In order for Vietnamese football to reach the continental level, the National Championship should also aim for more open goals and policies during the integration period. When Vietnamese representatives have not yet affirmed their abilities in continental playgrounds such as the AFC Champions League or AFC Cup, in a season, Vietnamese players have very few opportunities to approach and compete with high-level Asian and Southeast Asian players. Obviously, this is something that Vietnamese football needs to pay attention to and have the right direction.