Ahead of the 2023 - 2024 V.League professional season: Expectations of "new bottles, new wine"

07:04, October 11, 2023

The 2023-2024 Vietnam professional football season will start on October 20, 2023 and end in July 2024. This is also the first season to compete across two years like the international tournament, promising a pivotal year for the freshness of Vietnamese professional football.

Increase bonuses and performance

The 2023 season ended with the championship belonging to Hanoi Police (CAHN). Thus, the last 3 seasons of V.League witnessed 3 different champions: Viettel (2020), Hanoi FC (2022) and CAHN (2023). CAHN created a new page and was the second team to win the championship in the first season of competing in V.League (Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) in 2003). The common point of the last 3 seasons when determining the champion, they had to wait until the final round, creating a very new and attractive development. That is a sign of relatively fair competition, when for many years the championship only "surrounded" a few teams.

The organizers have made major changes in the operation of the tournaments in order to create "new wine". This is the first season to apply the international competition system for club level, which means starting from the autumn of the previous year and ending in the summer of the following year - a competition time frame synchronized with Asian and European countries.

V.League 2023 - 2024 has the participation of 14 professional clubs including: B.Binh Duong, CAHN, Thanh Hoa, Hanoi FC, Hai Phong, HAGL, Hong Linh Ha Tinh, Khanh Hoa, Nam Dinh, Quang Nam, Song Lam Nghe An, Binh Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City and Viettel. Instead of playing all the first leg of the group stage to compete for the championship and relegation, V.League 2023 - 2024 will apply the two-legged round-robin format (home - away) to calculate ranking points.

The prize money of V.League 2023 - 2024 has increased compared to the 2023 season with a total prize value of 9.5 billion VND. Accordingly, the top three teams of V.League 2023 - 2024 will receive the following prizes: The champion team will receive 5 billion VND; the second prize team will receive 3 billion VND and the third prize team will receive 1.5 billion VND.

The Super Cup match between Hanoi Police and Thanh Hoa used VAR technology.

More peace of mind when VAR comes into play

In the 2023 season, the outstanding and noteworthy factor that creates success is the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system. Under the supervision of the World Football Federation, all matches with VAR are safe and guaranteed in terms of technology. Although only applied in the last 3 matches of the season, it partly opens up new things for Vietnamese football in the future.

Currently, all stadiums of the teams participating in the V.League are eligible to apply VAR technology. However, there are only 2 mobile VAR vehicles, still waiting for 2 more vehicles under the support program approved by FIFA. Next season, there will be a maximum of 4 matches in each round applying VAR. In fact, VAR helps a lot to improve refereeing and increase transparency in matches. In particular, there is no longer a situation of controversy after each match about the decision of the "king of the field".

However, it is regrettable that VAR cannot be applied in 100% of matches as Vietnam currently has at most 4 mobile VAR vehicles. In addition, the application of VAR needs to be licensed by FIFA. Stadiums wishing to use VAR must meet FIFA's strict criteria.

"Currently, FIFA has only licensed VAR to appear in the V.League, so it cannot be applied in the First Division and the National Cup. VPF only has 2 VAR cars and is working with FIFA to put 2 more VAR cars into operation, trying to apply this technology in 7/7 matches each round of the V.League and also in the First Division and the National Cup," said Mr. Nguyen Minh Ngoc, General Director of Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company.

The new season is near, the teams have basically formed their coaching staff and players. Hopefully the audience will witness the change in the quality of Vietnamese professional football, both "bottle" and "wine".

Phong Uyen

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