What are the plans for V.League?

In the recent meeting of VPF with representatives of 13 V-League clubs, everyone agreed that the tournament's Organizing Committee needs to make changes based on the actual situation. But how to change is a big problem?

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A VPF official said: "The plan to organize V.League 2020 must be done backwards, starting from the time that the Organizing Committee has in hand". Accordingly, if V.League resumes at the end of May, teams will have 5 months to complete the remaining 24 matches. Thus, counting only V-League, teams will play 5 matches/month, an average of 3 weeks with a density of 1 match/week and 1 week with 2 matches/week.

Coach Chung Hae-Seong suggested that the teams should play one round to determine the rankings, then split into two, 7 teams competing for the championship, 7 teams playing to avoid relegation. Photo: CLB.TPHCM. Photo: Zing.vn

In addition, there is the National Cup, depending on the results, the teams will have to play from 1 to 5 matches (to the final). Thus, the 2 teams that reach the National Cup final will have to play 29 matches in 5 months. Actually, if it stops here, such a competition schedule is acceptable.

This year, Vietnamese football has 2 clubs, Ho Chi Minh City FC and Than Quang Ninh, competing in the AFC Cup. If they go further and reach the final of the Southeast Asian AFC Cup, the number of extra matches will be 7. If they continue to reach the inter-regional final, the number of extra matches will be 11.

Thus, the maximum number of matches that a V.League team must play is about 40 matches in 5 months, which is about 2 matches/week, which is difficult for Vietnamese players to withstand this intensity. There are 2 "unknowns": the time Mr. Park requires the tournament to temporarily stop so that the Vietnamese team can play the World Cup qualifiers (expected in September and October) and the time to gather for the AFF Cup 2020 at the end of the year. If the starting time is still delayed to early June, it can be said quickly that it is not feasible if the competition is still played according to the old plan.

Change the rules?

With representatives of 13 V-League clubs recently, everyone agreed that the tournament's organizing committee needs to make changes based on the actual situation. Photo: VPF

First of all, the National Cup (fixed format) or AFC Cup cannot be changed, so VPF can only "flex" in V-League. Because it is impossible to change the organization time like Thai 1-League, V.League is forced to recalculate the number of matches, because no one risks running out of spare time.

The easiest option is to play only one match, which means only 13 matches for the whole season, including the National Cup, the maximum is 18 matches. If this option is approved, some teams will only play 14 matches for the whole season. Because playing in empty stadiums, 6 or 7 home matches is not a problem, but the players playing too little will affect the quality of the national team.

With this option, some teams suggested canceling the 2 rounds that had been played and starting over, but most saw no reason to do this, especially when time was limited. Of course, the team that suggested it was in the group with poor results after the first 2 rounds.

Coach Chung Hae-Seong proposed that the teams should play one round to determine the rankings, then split in half, 7 teams competing for the championship, 7 teams playing to avoid relegation, similar to the competition method in some national championships such as Korea or Scotland. Thus, V.League 2020 will have 19 rounds, reducing 7 rounds, a solution considered relatively reasonable. In fact, not only V.League 2020 but also the following tournaments need to learn this model to avoid having 7-8 teams with almost no motivation when playing the second leg according to the current regulations.

Except for Thailand, which postponed the tournament to September, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. have not yet "moved" to restart the tournament. This means that VPF is forced to brainstorm and decide early to take advantage of the time when the Covid epidemic shows signs of decreasing in Vietnam, with a "license" to organize from the Government, the ball can roll immediately.