5 teams withdrew at the same time, the national U.21 football tournament disrupted the tournament table

Multiple reasons for withdrawing.

The U.21 tournament coincides with the training camp of the Vietnam U.23 national team, so this competition for the next generation of Vietnamese football players is receiving a lot of attention from the public.

Among the five teams that withdrew from the 2025 National U.21 Football Championship qualifiers, Lam Dong U.21 attracted attention. Lam Dong was one of the localities that eagerly agreed to host a group from the beginning. In fact, the VFF had already assigned the U.21 team to lead Group D, which included Lam Dong, Binh Dinh, Dak Lak, Quang Nam , and HAGL 2.

However, in the past two weeks, Lam Dong football seems to have undergone a "change". First, the second-division team, which was leading impressively and had a 95% chance of promotion to the first division, suddenly experienced an inexplicable drop in form in the last two rounds and let their opportunity slip away.

5 đội đồng loạt rút lui, giải bóng đá U.21 quốc gia xáo trộn bảng đấu- Ảnh 1. — The qualifying rounds for the national U.21 championship will begin on July 4th.

This significantly affected the morale of the reserve players, causing them to lose motivation to participate in the U.21 tournament and also diminishing their enthusiasm for hosting a group stage. The withdrawal of Lam Dong team from the group stage and their refusal to compete forced the VFF to reshuffle and reassign the teams in Group D to other groups in the south.

The withdrawal of Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh both have valid reasons. These two teams have regularly participated in the VFF-organized youth tournaments in recent times and both have fairly stable local training programs, always playing with strong spirit and enthusiasm. However, after Binh Phuoc merged with Dong Nai and Tay Ninh merged with Long An under the new local government structure, they could no longer continue to allocate state funding for youth football to two teams within the same province. Therefore, both Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh proactively withdrew to make way for Dong Nai and Long An.

5 đội đồng loạt rút lui, giải bóng đá U.21 quốc gia xáo trộn bảng đấu- Ảnh 2. — The U.21 qualifying round is a challenging opportunity for young players.

The U.21 Khanh Hoa team is in a similar situation, even though they are capable of competing in the qualifying rounds in Ho Chi Minh City, just like the U.15 team currently playing at Thong Nhat Stadium. However, the U.21 Khanh Hoa team has partly lost its momentum due to the unconvincing performance of the first team in the First Division. Furthermore, after several controversies surrounding coaches allegedly embezzling player funds, Khanh Hoa's youth football team is likely undergoing restructuring to focus on the future, thus eroding their motivation to compete in the U.21 tournament.

In the case of Gia Lai Concrete 26, although they very much wanted to participate in the U.21 tournament for the first time, the VFF (Vietnam Football Federation) did not approve their participation because their application did not meet the regulations.

Ho Chi Minh City has two U.21 teams and two venues to host the upcoming exciting tournament.

With the withdrawal of 5 teams, the 2025 U.21 National Championship qualifiers, which initially had 28 registered teams, have been reduced to 23, and the VFF has further reduced the number of groups from 6 to 5 (3 groups of 5 teams and 2 groups of 4 teams). The format remains a round-robin tournament, with the top 10 teams from each of the 5 groups and the best third-placed team advancing directly to the final round. If the host team of the final round is among these 11 teams, the 12th spot will be awarded to the second-best third-placed team from the 5 groups.

5 đội đồng loạt rút lui, giải bóng đá U.21 quốc gia xáo trộn bảng đấu- Ảnh 3. — The U.21 team from Thong Nhat Sports Center, Ho Chi Minh City, is having a good preparation for the U.21 qualifying round.

Of the five groups hosting the qualifying rounds – Viettel (Group A), PVF (Group B), HAGL (Group C) – the remaining two were hosted by Ho Chi Minh City. Specifically, Group D was played at Thanh Long Stadium, while Group E was played at Long Tam Stadium (Ba Ria), now also part of Ho Chi Minh City. This is why the Ba Ria-Vung Tau team requested to change their name to the U.21 Ho Chi Minh City team and competed in Group E. Another team from Ho Chi Minh City, led by coach Lu Dinh Tuan, was the Thong Nhat Sports Center team, competing in Group D.

Here is the list of the 5 specific groups: Group A (played at Viettel, 4 teams) includes The Cong Viettel, Hanoi, Hoai Duc, and PVF CAND. Group B (played at PVF, 5 teams): PVF, SLNA, Thanh Hoa, Hanoi Police, and Dao Ha Training Center. Group C (played in Pleiku, 4 teams): HAGL 1, Quang Nam, Hue, and Da Nang. Group D (played at Thanh Long Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City, 5 teams) includes Thong Nhat Sports Center, An Giang, Dong Thap, Binh Dinh, and Vinh Long. Group F (played in Ba Ria and Ho Chi Minh City, 5 teams): Ho Chi Minh City, HAGL 2, Dong Nai, Dak Lak, and Long An.