V-League and the change in competition format

Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) has issued a tentative competition plan for the 2023 national professional football season. Notably, the national championship, namely V-League1, will open on February 3, 2023, the first division, namely V-League2, will open on February 4, 2023 and both will compete in a single round-robin format, with the second stage of the competition group divided into the championship group and the relegation group. The national cup will start on March 18 and end on August 27, 2023 with a direct one-loss format.

The new 2023 football season will have significant new features. Photo: Archive

Thus, the new 2023 season will have significant new features when Vietnamese football truly "integrates" with the 2-year competition format as the world is doing, both suitable for the competition schedule of the whole world, continent and region, and avoiding players having to compete in the hot summer, spectators having to cheer in the sun like many years ago. But there is also a difference in that with 2 stages, if the team competes in the round robin 1 round and achieves a high ranking, they will be in the group competing for the championship in stage 2. On the contrary, if they do not achieve good results, the teams in the following groups will compete together, avoiding one or two relegation spots.

In fact, during the 2020 pandemic season, Vietnamese football also took these two steps, and then debates arose with many conflicting opinions, and in the end, the 2021 season (aborted) and the 2022 season returned to the old practice of playing in a round-robin format as usual. Up to now, the reason why the second phase of the group separation was given, while objectively there were no problems as before.

Previously, playing in a double round-robin was considered to have many advantages because the number of matches in the season would be greater, which would benefit many related parties, from players, coaches, teams and viewers. There was an opinion that if the groups were separated from phase 2, many teams would run out of goals, not play enthusiastically, and become a point store for other teams. However, this opinion was immediately countered by the opinion that even if the groups were not separated from phase 2, the middle-ranking teams would be willing to play at a moderate pace when the championship was not yet won and relegation was not yet their turn? The situation of "playing for fun" has always been a reality in Vietnamese football for a long time, especially with average mid-level teams.

In fact, since the 2020 season, when the top division was implemented in phase 2, it has been shown that the possibility of "giving up" has occurred with teams such as Quang Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Hoang Anh Gia Lai... On the contrary, Viettel and Hanoi FC are the teams that played well in this top division phase and achieved the highest ranking of the season.

To see, the truly ambitious teams will fight to the end regardless of the competition format in front of them. Moreover, if we want to increase the attractiveness of the season until the final rounds, the strong teams must directly compete with each other to win the championship, and the weak teams must also take points from each other, not having to meet too strong teams, championship candidates that can easily discourage them from striving. Moreover, with Vietnamese football today, the story of one owner of several teams has not been thoroughly done, this or that alliance is not necessarily a thing of the past, so separating means separating the story of giving up points, the bustling friendship.

Of course, no format is perfect and the above plan of Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) has not necessarily received the approval and implementation yet, because it is still waiting for "the final decision". But surely there must be a legitimate and urgent reason for the above plan to be put forward early for discussion and decision?

Hoa Bui