V-League, CEO Tran Anh Tu and the first movements

The first steps of CEO Tu show that the concerns that Mr. Tu will lean towards the capital representative of VFF, the largest shareholder (35.4%) have disappeared. Years of working with futsal have made the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Football Federation (HFF) and also a Standing Member of the VFF understand the role of VPF and the Club in the V-League.

No discount V-League

Nam Dinh announces VNAsport uniform sponsor. Photo: Dung Nguyen

The V-League season is about to open, and the sponsor Toyota is "squeezing the price", but CEO Tu is not shaken. He believes that once Toyota has dared to invest in the Thai League with a sponsorship contract worth 5 million USD/season (about 110 billion VND/season), but forcing VPF to pay less than 2 million USD/season as the main sponsor for the V-League is unacceptable.

There may still be violence on the pitch, “strange whistles”, flares in the stands… but the V-League cannot be so far away from the Thai League. It was a brave decision and CEO Tu showed the courage and confidence of a big businessman with a lot of experience in negotiating big sponsorship contracts.

The fact that NutiFood Vietnam has become the main sponsor for 3 seasons (2019-2020) is considered a big mark of Mr. Tu in his position as CEO. The sponsorship value was not announced but CEO Tu assured that it would not be lower than the package Toyota had sponsored.

VPF is making the "quasi-professional" championship closer to international standards, to the extent possible.

Up to now, the stadium and stands are what VPF is determined to upgrade, after the lesson of Quang Nam winning the championship but not participating in the AFC Champions League. Up to now, 10/13 stadiums (Saigon and Ho Chi Minh City Clubs share the stadium) have installed additional seats in the B stand area, many stadium surfaces have been renovated by the clubs.

Care about the audience

V-League 2018 is being awaited by fans. Photo: Internet

Talking about professional football is talking about “flag colors, shirt colors”, professional clubs, big or small, all have sponsors for training and competition uniforms. This is also the main source of advertising revenue for the clubs that V-League teams have long forgotten. Currently, 12/14 clubs have shirt sponsors (except S.Khanh Hoa, Da Nang), even the newly promoted team Nam Dinh has VNAsport.

A chain of stores selling football jerseys belonging to Nam Dinh Sports Joint Stock Company at Thien Truong Stadium and franchise agents distributing football jerseys and souvenirs of Nam Dinh football are being established. HAGL is also in the process of negotiating with Japanese brands such as Sport Planning or Soccer to replace Mizuno.

To promote the club's image and connect the audience with the coaching staff, VPF players have asked the teams to set up fanpages and assign managers. Even if the clubs are late, VPF will assign staff to "do it for them". Up to now, 13/14 clubs have official fanpages (except Da Nang).

Along with promoting communication activities, bringing football closer to the audience, Mr. Tu does not hide his ambition to attract an average of 10,000 spectators/match like the peak of V-League 2009. VPF will promote the management of fan clubs, considering them the core in promoting the image of Vietnamese football. In addition to monthly and quarterly rewards, VPF encourages clubs to have many forms of ticket sales, organize exchanges with players, lucky draws... to create a vibrant atmosphere before, during and after the match.

After the victory of U23 Vietnam in China, Vietnamese football is having a positive effect, the Government leaders pay much attention to the development of the King sport, the audience is enthusiastic. This is the opportunity for VFF, VPF to quickly reform the V-League 2018 playground, pushing it to a new level.