What's the solution to the poor pitch quality in the V.League?
The quality of the pitches used by V.League teams in recent rounds has become a prominent issue, attracting considerable public attention. A drastic measure is needed to ensure that clubs can maintain the quality of their facilities and match organization.
Severe weather
In V.League 2024/25Several teams were unable to play at home due to inadequate facilities, particularly the quality of the pitch. These included SHB Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quy Nhon Binh Dinh, and Hong Linh Ha Tinh. Specifically, the Ha Tinh stadium was unsuitable for the match in round 15, forcing the team to borrow the Vinh stadium to host the Hong Linh Ha Tinh vs. Dong A Thanh Hoa match.
One of the reasons why stadiums in the V.League, including My Dinh National Stadium, face difficulties in maintaining and caring for their pitches is the weather conditions. In winter, the prolonged cold and frost in the central and northern regions prevent the grass from recovering and growing.
Most football teams nowadays have replaced the old-fashioned ginger grass with higher-quality grasses like Bermuda or paspalum, making the pitches more aesthetically pleasing and better suited for play. However, these types of grass are only suitable for mild, sunny weather conditions and require meticulous maintenance.
Therefore, despite many clubs investing an average of 500 million to 1 billion VND, or even 2.5 billion VND per year like the PVF Center, many football fields remain at an average level and do not truly meet the requirements for organizing professional competitions.
Use the stadium as a training ground.
Weather is only part of the reason, because if it were just the weather, why do stadiums like Lach Tray, Hai Phong, or the stadiums of the PVF Youth Training Center, Hang Day Stadium, Thien Truong Stadium… still maintain quality? The reason is that clubs use the stadiums themselves as training grounds, while foreign stadiums are rarely used for training but only for matches, with only one training session to familiarize themselves with the pitch.
It can be seen that stadiums like Thong Nhat, Binh Duong, Lach Tray, Thien Truong, Pleiku... have good quality grass all year round, not only because they are well-maintained, but also because the clubs that choose these stadiums as their home grounds all have their own training grounds.
At Vinh Stadium, although there is a dedicated training ground, Coach Phan Nhu Thuat and his team still have to train together with the youth teams. Currently, Song Lam Nghe An Club, with its first team and 10 youth teams, only has two artificial turf pitches and one natural grass pitch. This causes both Vinh Stadium and the training ground to be overloaded due to the high training density, the difficulty in restoring the quality of the turf, especially during periods of harsh weather, cold temperatures, and frost.
Vinh Stadium and many other football fields currently have the advantage of being handed over to them by the local authorities for management and use. This means they are not affected by outdoor events, and clubs have more control over the use, renovation, and maintenance of the pitch. However, many other football fields depend on the investment capabilities of units under the Sports sector.
Infrastructure problem
It's clear that weather or budget aren't the main reasons for the deterioration of the pitches in V.League stadiums. Clubs have been paying more attention and actively working on upgrading and improving facilities and organizing matches, but they still face difficulties due to a lack of training pitches.
However, finding additional space for training grounds is currently not easy. Even with its strong financial resources, Hanoi Football Club still has to rent training grounds belonging to the My Dinh National Stadium Management Board. Very few V.League clubs currently own two or more training grounds. This is also one of the difficulties that makes organizing youth tournaments dependent on PVF, Pleiku, Binh Duong, or Vung Tau.
The most difficult situation regarding training grounds was faced by Hong Linh Ha Tinh. After their match against Dong A Thanh Hoa in Round 15 of the V.League, coach Nguyen Thanh Cong was forced to give his players two days off from training because the Ha Tinh stadium had to close for maintenance and they could no longer borrow the training and match grounds of Song Lam Nghe An.
Looking further ahead, it's not just about professional stadiums; to develop football, especially youth training, community football, and school football, there is a great need for more standard-compliant pitches. For children to practice football and engage in physical activities related to football, it cannot be effectively implemented when clubs and youth training centers themselves lack adequate training grounds.
Therefore, this problem urgently requires the support of the Vietnam Football Federation, the tournament organizers, and the attention and involvement of local authorities.
