U.14 League - the first "mini V-League" model
If in the past, in youth tournaments such as the national U.13, a team only played 3-9 official matches per year, then with the two-legged league format at the 2025-2026 Northern U.14 tournament, this number has increased many times. According to calculations, the team that only played 3 matches in the old system will now have 17 matches (an increase of 566%), and the team that played 9 matches will now have 23 matches (an increase of 255%).
This is a historic step forward, because the biggest limitation of Vietnamese youth football for many years has been the lack of official match funds for players to practice, compete and mature.
Having a professional playground for young players to compete will be a good foundation for their development.
Former head coach of the Vietnam national team Philippe Troussier once pointed out that the difference between young Vietnamese players and players in Europe or Japan is not in quality, but in the number of matches played each year.
According to him, a young player needs to play at least 35-40 matches/year to develop properly, while in Vietnam, this number is usually only a few to ten matches. Even with the previous cup format, only the final team played 9 matches, while the majority of the team had to "sit and watch" for most of the year. Playing too little causes many talents to "wither".
Of the U.16 Vietnam team that made it to the 2016 Asian quarter-finals, only four players remain in the V-League (Viet Cuong, Huu Thang, Thanh Binh, Dinh Hai), the rest have stopped early. Associate Professor Dr. Pham Ngoc Vien, who laid the foundation for professional football in Vietnam, once worried: "Young players today have too few opportunities to compete in real life. The tournament lasts for a few months, the rest is just practice. They lose the most precious years of their career development."
Breakthrough for youth football
At the recent Professional Football Licensing Conference, the 2025-2026 Northern U.14 tournament was announced as a breakthrough.
The tournament is organized by the Hanoi Youth Football Training Center (under Hanoi T&T Sports Joint Stock Company), with strong response from leading training centers in the Northern region.
Match between U.14 Hanoi and U.14 Hanoi Police
Match between U.14 Hoai Duc and U.14 SLNA
In the first season, the tournament has 8 participating teams: Hanoi, The Cong Viettel, Hanoi Police, PVF, Nam Dinh , Hai Phong, Hoai Duc, Thanh Hoa and Song Lam Nghe An. The teams compete in a round robin for points; the matches take place at 2 p.m. every Saturday, from October 2025 to January 2026, simulating the model of a professional season.
Each team has 14 official matches, allowing 11-13 year old players to play regularly, instead of just "practicing" all year round. The entire operating system - player registration, uniforms, regulations, referees, match schedule - is all according to professional standards, only shortening the match duration to 40 minutes/half to suit the physical strength of the age group. Although the rewards are not large (10 million VND for champion, 5 million for runner-up, 3 million for third place), the meaning of encouraging spirit and pride in competition is invaluable to young players.
Vietnamese youth football is gradually professionalizing.
As soon as the tournament kicked off, experts and fans both assessed this as a concrete and practical step to solve the problem of "lack of matches" for Vietnamese youth football. If maintained and expanded to the U.17, U.19, U.21 groups, this model could form a continuous and sustainable competition system, helping young players develop comprehensively.
Mr. Adachi, Technical Director of Hanoi Club, shared: "I myself, since I was the Technical Director of VFF, have always wanted to organize tournaments in the league format (round robin). After 5 years of waiting, this wish has finally been realized with the Northern U.14 tournament.
However, this is just the beginning of the implementation of a year-round tournament system for all youth age groups. If Vietnamese football really wants to rise to the top group in Asia, then this is the only way," he said.
According to Mr. Adachi, the League format is not only to increase the number of matches, but also to create a comprehensive development environment, where players and coaches can mature through the "match - training - match" cycle repeated every week.
Ranking after the first round of the U.14 Northern Club Tournament
This is something that the knockout format cannot provide, especially for young players who need to hone their skills and character throughout the year. From this first step, Vietnamese youth football is gradually approaching the development standards of the region, continent and the world.
If maintained in the right direction, future generations of players can grow up in a systematic, continuous and professional football ecosystem - something that Vietnamese football has lacked for many years.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lan-dau-tien-bong-da-tre-viet-nam-co-giai-mini-v-league-185251014150214207.htm
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