What's interesting about the 2024 Second Division Football Tournament?
(Baonghean.vn) - In the current men's football competition system managed by the Vietnam Football Federation, V-League 1 and V-League 2 (First Division) are considered professional football, while the Second Division and Third Division are considered non-professional.
The Second Division 2024 that we will talk about below, according to the new regulations announced on February 6, 2024, has 14 teams, including 10 Second Division 2023 teams: Dak Lak, Bac Ninh (transferred from Gia Dinh Club), PVF, Tre Quang Nam (changed name to Van Hien University), Tay Nguyen Gia Lai (transferred from Gama Vinh Phuc Club), Lam Dong, Tre SHB Da Nang, Tre TP.Ho Chi Minh, Vinh Long, Tien Giang; 04 teams from Third Division 2023 were promoted including An Giang, Dinh Huong Phu Nhuan, Kom Tum, Tre Ha Noi.
According to the regulations, the Second Division requires each team to register at least 18 players, maximum 30 players, including 2 goalkeepers and at most 1 foreign player of Vietnamese origin. Each team must register leaders including team leader, executive director, head coach and other positions as well as many mandatory regulations for a non-professional national tournament.
Looking at the list of participating clubs mentioned above, we can see the silhouettes of many famous football names from the subsidized football era such as Lam Dong, Vinh Long, Tien Giang, An Giang..., teams that used to compete in the First Division such as Dak Lak, "backyard" teams of V-League teams such as Youth SHB Da Nang, Youth Quang Nam, Youth Ho Chi Minh City, Youth Ha Noi... It is not wrong if someone says that the Second Division is the tournament for young teams, both looking for a path to promotion and being a supplement and training for V-League teams.
Although the 2024 Second Division will not start until March 28, it has been quite lively with developments in terms of force and personnel. The most prominent is the Bac Ninh club with the role of advisor to Mr. Park Hang-seo. The task of the former head coach of the Vietnam National Team is to "advise on all aspects of business development" of the team. It is known that this Korean coach is also the person who decides on issues related to technique, expertise and management of the team, meaning that he is almost a sports director, a title that has not been used much in Vietnamese football for a long time.
In addition, it is known that the head coach of Bac Ninh club will be the former national player - former head coach of Song Lam Nghe An, Mr. Ngo Quang Truong. To see, starting from the Second Division, Bac Ninh club joined the football village with great ambitions, daring to invest to quickly step into the Vietnamese professional football village in the next two or three seasons.
The second team in the Second Division that is actively recruiting good soldiers and generals is Van Hien University Club (ie Tre Quang Nam). There is news that former national player, former head coach of Dong Thap, Mr. Tran Cong Minh will take on the position of technical director. Along with that, a series of Dong Thap players will follow their coach to play for the Second Division team and will rent Thong Nhat Stadium as their home ground in the near future.
To see, although it is a Second Division tournament, there will be many good coaches and good players at the national level joining to realize the ambitions of the teams and localities. Of course, there will be many young players from famous training centers in the country such as PVF, Song Lam Nghe An, Hoang Anh Gia Lai, Hanoi FC, Viettel... joining to compete and practice before returning to play in teams in V-League 1 and 2. Therefore, the 2024 Second Division tournament will certainly promise attractive, dramatic matches, full of youth and dedication.
According to the regulations, the 14 participating teams will be divided into 2 groups to compete in a round-robin of 2 home/away matches, with the top 2 teams from each group advancing to the final round. The 2 teams with the lowest rankings in each group will be relegated. In the final round, the 2 winning teams from the 2 matches will be promoted to the First Division, i.e. V-League 2… This means that the competition for promotion or relegation will be very dramatic and attractive from the beginning to the end of the tournament, something that V-League 1 or 2 has not been as intense as when only one team is relegated, and there are even seasons when there is no relegation team like there used to be./.
