Vietnamese Football - Early Year Predictions

(Baonghean)2012 was a year of great sadness for Vietnamese football: a professional league still without a clear path forward, a humiliating AFF Cup failure, and significant changes leading up to the new season… More dangerously, the faith and interest of fans have cooled, and expectations for the development of domestic football have gone nowhere.

This illustrates the reality that, after more than 15 years of reintegration into regional sports in general and football in particular, the strategy of building a strong professional football league (which for a long time was considered the best professional league in Southeast Asia), and building a national team capable of competing on the continental stage, remains a distant dream. The failure at the recent AFF Cup has given us a profound lesson and a more realistic view of the position of Vietnamese football.

In the new year of 2013, Vietnamese football faced many difficulties, but fans hoped that, with a realistic perspective, Vietnamese football would progress in a more solid and stable way.

After 10 years, the V.League national football championship, with only 12 participating teams and just one relegation spot, may have lost some of its appeal. However, the withdrawal of those club owners who operated with unpredictable and erratic behavior will, in a way, be beneficial for Vietnamese football. The economic crisis has indeed had a tremendous impact on the sport, and the preparations for the new season by the teams reflect this. Gone are the expensive contracts and flashy PR campaigns; domestic football is now returning to its normal trajectory. Prioritizing the use of domestic players trained by the clubs themselves will be a long-term guarantee for discovering new talents for the country's football.

Following coach Phan Thanh Hung's departure from the national team, the search for a replacement continues to be a headache for the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF). The question of whether to use a domestic or foreign coach is causing the governing body of Vietnamese football considerable difficulty. Aside from the SEA Games, 2013 is a year without major tournaments for the national team. Finding a capable coach who understands the abilities of each player would be crucial in rebuilding a national team that has already lost confidence after a series of failures.

For a long time, the traditional values ​​of football clubs have been overshadowed by the "power comes from money" mentality, with clubs being bought and sold, teams having their names changed, etc. Through turbulent times, many teams with a rich history have survived, serving as a guarantee that Vietnamese football must develop from its inherent strengths!

Trong Hai