Why is V.League 'devalued'?

(Baonghean) - Last week, the information that the main sponsor withdrew from V.League was confirmed by the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) Tran Anh Tu.

Citing financial difficulties, Toyota officially parted ways with V.League, but surprisingly, Toyota renewed and increased its sponsorship for Thai League to 19.76 million USD (more than 6.5 million USD/season) until 2020. Previously, Toyota was the main sponsor for V.League with a value of about 1.76 million USD/year (40 billion VND).

The sudden withdrawal of the main sponsor has left the V.League Organizing Committee confused as they do not know who to replace them at this time and therefore the preparation plan for the new 2018 season cannot be implemented.

Main sponsor Toyota will withdraw from V.League from the 2018 season. Photo: Duc Dung

This is a sign that V.League is increasingly losing value and is even being mercilessly abandoned by sponsors. And it is also from Toyota's abandonment that we know that Thai League has long been "valuable" 4-5 times more than V.League. The reason Toyota broke off with V.League is to increase the amount of sponsorship for Thai League.

According to experts, this is the result of the V.League's declining professional quality. One of the main reasons is that the V.League is no longer a "promised land" for quality foreign players. As coach Duc Thang of Saigon FC and acting president of Ho Chi Minh City Club Cong Vinh once warned, the application of a "quota" for registering foreign players by the V.League Organizing Committee unintentionally reduces the quality of this tournament.

According to coach Duc Thang: "When the Organizing Committee reduced the number of foreign players, the quality of V.League immediately went down. For the audience, they need beautiful matches with better professional quality. But now, we limit foreign players, which means suffocating that." Cong Vinh said: "Foreign players are limited in playing time, and at the same time, the unlicensed financial mechanism causes many teams to only have the signatures of "drifters", causing the quality of the squad to go down. It also drags down the professional quality of the matches and the tournament."

SLNA did not have a good ranking in V-League 2017. Photo: Internet

The former striker of the Vietnamese national team also called for: "Clubs will have to speak up and fight to reclaim the right to register foreign players. In terms of foreign affairs, it also helps Vietnamese representative clubs to play fairly with opponents in the AFC Cup and AFC Champions League."

Sharing the same view, Coach Nguyen Thanh Vinh said: Having too few quality foreign players on the field has made the V.League less attractive in recent years. Should the Organizing Committee increase the number of foreign players allowed on the field at the same time from 3 to 4 slots? Then, the competition will be higher, the match will be faster, leading to a more attractive tournament.

In fact, in recent years, we have limited foreign players with the aim of creating conditions for young players of the clubs to play more, but the quality of domestic players has not improved much, and the foreign players are all "drifting", leading to the quality of the tournament gradually declining. Along with that are "sideline" stories such as referee work, teams "colluding" with each other or being manipulated by a few bosses, causing the V. League to "fall in value" even more.

According to the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of VPF, V.League of course has a certain value and it is valued by businesses if they want to promote their image and brand through this "product". But the specific number and who will sign will be a headache for the new Chairman of VPF and the Organizing Committee of V.League!

Duc Dung