Improvisation...

(Baonghean) - On July 27th, Vietnamese football fans will have the opportunity to witness a match between the Vietnamese national team and the renowned Manchester City team from England. This is a great chance for Vietnamese players to compete against world-class football stars who play for the wealthy Manchester City team.

Man City arrived in Hanoi around 6:30 PM, but Vietnamese fans had been waiting for them for almost two hours beforehand.

Manchester City's visit to Vietnam was a great gift for our football fans and players. However, unlike previous occasions when we invited teams like FC Porto (2004), Barca B (2005), Olympiakos (2009), the Brazilian Olympic team (2008), and Arsenal (2013)... all of which involved careful preparation, scheduling, and team training, this time Manchester City came to Vietnam in a very spontaneous way. It happened when Mr. Hien, during a business trip abroad, heard that the team would cancel their friendly match against Indonesia because the Indonesian national team had just been banned from competing by FIFA. As a businessman, Mr. Hien considered the potential benefits of enhancing the team's image and brand, so he invited them to Vietnam.

Manchester City, seeing the opportunity, immediately agreed. Everything was decided very quickly. Following this, discussions ensued between the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and Manchester City. To meet the demands of this famous club, the VFF agreed to change the V.League 2015 schedule. Accordingly, the 18th round, instead of being played on Saturday or Sunday as usual, was moved to Thursday afternoon. This schedule change led to a series of problems for the teams' travel. The number of spectators attending matches and watching on television was significantly lower compared to holidays. Many sponsors of the V.League expressed dissatisfaction with the VFF's approach, arguing that a friendly match with a club had disrupted the plans of the nation's top football league. Clubs also complained about having to rush the schedule for the match against Man City and that some players, hearing rumors that they would be chosen to play against world-class stars, held back to focus on their national team commitments, leading to results like Binh Duong losing to HAGL, SLNA losing to Khanh Hoa, etc.

Some argue that to have a match against a world-class team, one should accept those difficulties. Sadly, while we're lavishly promoting Manchester City and their sponsors' visit to Vietnam for free, their official website only contains a brief announcement about a possible match in Vietnam. This is in stark contrast to the detailed information provided on their website regarding friendly matches with other teams and clubs during their tour.

There wasn't the kind of "ticket frenzy" like when Arsenal came to Vietnam with the phenomenon of "running man" Vu Xuan Tien, who became famous worldwide. Nevertheless, we hope that, given what we are willing to sacrifice, the match between Man City and Arsenal will bring a breath of fresh air to Vietnamese football!

Duc Dung