Captain Nguyen Manh and a series of SLNA pillars are about to expire their contracts.

"Necessity binds wisdom"

For a professional Vietnamese football team to maintain operations and compete stably in V.League 2019, financial resources are the most important factor.

At the beginning of the 2019 V.League season, it was thought that SLNA would find a new sponsor with financial potential. In the end, Bac A Bank had to continue to participate with a 1-year sponsorship package worth 30 billion VND. This number clearly cannot guarantee that the Nghe An team can retain top players like Que Ngoc Hai or Nguyen Trong Hoang. However, it is enough to help SLNA temporarily have enough funds to maintain operations.

When the 2019 season had passed a few rounds, SLNA received a new sponsorship package of 20 billion VND from a local business. However, of that 20 billion VND, 13 billion was used to pay salaries for the players and 7 billion VND was in the bonus fund for each draw and win.

Each match will have a different bonus instead of a fixed amount as before. According to estimates, the figure of 50 billion VND/season of SLNA is considered average in V.League, but because the team is facing difficulties, some players have not received enough signing money.

Trong Hoang is SLNA's biggest regret. Photo: Trung Kien

Up to this point, there has been no movement on SLNA having a new and stable sponsor until the end of the 2019 season. Remember at the beginning of the season, because of being “offside” with the new sponsor, SLNA failed to bring veterans like Trong Hoang and Hoang Thinh back to wear the jersey of their hometown team.

And the worry of being passive in financial matters before each season is present with SLNA. This year, the Nghe An team has recruited a total of 4 foreign players and currently owns 3 foreign players. This will certainly increase the cost of signing bonuses and paying salaries for players compared to previous seasons.

It is worth mentioning that all three foreign players Michael Olaha, Damir Memovic and Joel Vinicius have contracts of no more than 1 year. This means that at the end of the season, SLNA will need a large sum of money to keep them or recruit new players. Without good foreign players, the performance will go down and it will be difficult to find sponsors and there will be no funds, like a vicious cycle.

Time to worry again

When V.League 2019 ended, a series of key players had their contracts with the team expire. Among them were Captain Nguyen Manh, defender Tran Dinh Hoang, midfielder Ho Khac Ngoc, Le The Cuong, players born in 1994 such as Vo Ngoc Toan, Vo Ngoc Duc, Ho Phuc Tinh... The difficult problem is that next season, veteran players such as Quang Tinh, Van Binh or Dinh Dong will find it difficult to shoulder the responsibility when they are on the other side of the slope of their careers.

Khac Ngoc and SLNA's mainstays are about to expire. Photo: Duc Anh

With the current crop of young players, SLNA has only promoted 3 players: goalkeeper Duong Van Cuong and 2 young central defenders Le Thanh Lam and Nguyen Ba Duc, but all of them are still too young and have not been tested for a single minute.

This means that at least in the next few years, SLNA will have almost no young players to replace the seniors as is traditionally the case. And besides keeping the aforementioned pillars, to revive, SLNA is forced to call back veterans and needs a large sum of money.

In addition to financial worries, SLNA also has to deal with injuries. There are 3 cases that are seriously injured and are likely to miss the first stage of V.League 2020: goalkeeper Le Van Hung, Vo Ngoc Duc and Phan Van Duc. They will need some time to regain their form and meet professional requirements.

Despite the difficulties, the Nghe An football team’s income from tickets is insignificant. Each match, Vinh Stadium only welcomes an average of 2,000 to 3,000 spectators. Of which, nearly 1/3 are tickets and invitations. This source of income is not enough to cover the huge expenses mentioned above.

It seems that SLNA's story is not only about professional issues, whether the current coach is suitable or not, but the most important and worrying thing is still finding a strong and sustainable financial source. Only then can we hope for achievements and move towards professional football./.

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