Waiting for positive changes in the new season

Right in this season, the top football village welcomes 3 new names: Phu Dong Ninh Binh , PVF-CAND and the return of the brand of Ho Chi Minh City Police. This could be the beginning of more profound changes, when many new localities are aiming to invest heavily in professional football.

Signs of change appeared from the National Super Cup match between CAHN and Nam Dinh last weekend. That was the third consecutive match that the opening match of the season did not have the presence of Hanoi - the team holding the record with 6 national championships and participating in 7 out of 10 Super Cup matches since 2022. The Hanoi team still maintains its position in the top group, but the power has been shared.

In the last 5 seasons, Hanoi has only won the championship once, in contrast to 5 championships in the previous 10 seasons. In the last 5 years, V-League has had 3 different champions. This is an unprecedented number if calculated according to each 5-year cycle.

Besides, the championships of The Cong Viettel (2020), CAHN (2023) or Nam Dinh (2024, 2025) are all strong returns of traditional teams in the past, worthy results of the methodical investment process in Vietnamese professional football today.

This will be the driving force to promote social investment in football, especially in some localities after the merger that have changed in economic potential as well as the need to enjoy football matches among residents.

The diversity in the championship race makes the competitiveness of V-League increasing, which means increasing the appeal to attract audiences to domestic football fields.

Statistics show that, despite a decrease compared to the pre-Covid-19 period, the average audience of V-League is still the highest in Southeast Asia, surpassing Thai-League, Indonesia Liga or Malaysia Super League. Having more ambitious teams, many "key" matches or "local derbies" are the "magnets" for fans to want to watch domestic football.

The 2025-2026 season is therefore expected to be pivotal, pushing the V-League to quickly reach the goal of becoming the leading championship in Southeast Asia and increasing the number of quality teams when representing Vietnam to compete in regional and continental tournaments under the club system.

More than 50% of the teams participating in this year's tournament have declared that they will aim for the championship, while newly promoted "rookies" such as Ninh Binh and PVF-CAND have also increased their forces, not willing to be outdone by experienced names.

However, the greatest expectation for V-League 2025-2026 is to narrow the gap and create balance between football in each region of the country. For the first time in the history of the national championship, localities from Da Nang and below have only 4 representatives playing in the highest level, including 2 teams from Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, this is the fourth consecutive season that Mekong Delta football has been absent from the V-League. If this imbalance does not change, in the long run, a large, populous area with a strong production and consumption market, with a football tradition, but cannot access many top matches, will certainly affect the movement, gradually lose people interested in football and the consequence is that the entire training system will stop operating due to poor input and output.

Hopefully the championship race and the rise of old names will be a catalyst, a source of inspiration for many new localities after the merger to have more determination to invest, creative thinking to find ways to attract social resources to participate in developing local football. The more professional clubs, the national football team will certainly benefit.

DANG LINH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/cho-doi-thay-tich-cuc-o-mua-bong-moi-post808605.html