Why is football in the Central and Southern regions declining: The relegation race is 'strong because of rice, bold because of money'?

V-League 2024 - 2025 is coming to an end with a bleak picture of football in the Central and Southern regions when 7/8 teams in these two regions are in the bottom half of the rankings.

Hold on to the relegation spot

The situation of V-League 2024 - 2025 before the last 2 rounds has determined that 5 football teams from the Central and Southern regions, namely Da Nang Club (21 points), Binh Dinh Club (21 points), SLNA (23 points), Ho Chi Minh City Club (25 points), Quang Nam Club (25 points) must compete to avoid 1 direct relegation spot, 1 place in the relegation play-off. The two teams that are close to the top, HAGL Club (28 points), Binh Duong Club (29 points), also had a difficult season. The team from the Central region with the highest position on the rankings, Ha Tinh Club (35 points, 4th place), also unexpectedly lost 2 consecutive matches, making it difficult to finish in the top 3.

The reason for the decline of football in the Central and Southern regions, according to commentator Huynh Sang, lies in the first reason: financial potential. "In this year's V-League, teams in the Northern region such as Nam Dinh, Hanoi Club, Hanoi Police, The Cong Viettel are in the leading group. The common point of these teams is that they have good financial potential. The key to professional football, whether in Vietnam or the world, lies in finance. When there are strong financial resources, issues such as hiring good foreign players, recruiting quality domestic players, adequate salaries... along with good investment, the results are clearly seen through competition results and positions on the rankings. The Central and Southern teams do not have as strong financial potential as the Northern teams, so their poor performance is understandable," said Mr. Sang.

Binh Dinh Club (left) is struggling to avoid relegation this season.

PHOTO: MINH TU

Need to change the way football is done

Commentator Huynh Sang said one of the reasons for the decline of football in the Central and Southern regions is the unsustainable approach.

"Localities need to proactively build football teams, and if they are associated with sponsoring businesses, they can also maintain their identity and connection with fans. Such proactiveness can ensure that the team avoids collapse when the sponsor withdraws. We have witnessed how Long An football declined after sponsor Dong Tam withdrew. Binh Dinh Club, SLNA, and Ho Chi Minh City Club are also in a similar situation. There will be opinions on why some localities like Ho Chi Minh City have great economic potential but the football team still does not play as expected. Here, in my opinion, there is an additional factor that businesses in Ho Chi Minh City are rich but lack "blood" for football. Especially in the context of Vietnam, investing in football is not profitable, which is the fundamental reason why investors and businesses are reluctant to participate because it is like throwing money out the window," Mr. Sang shared.

Solving the problem of how to make a profit when investing in football is the way to improve the quality of V-League. For the teams in the Central and Southern regions, it is necessary to promote local identity, calling for passionate and capable bosses like Mr. Duc with HAGL Club to develop the team.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vi-sao-bong-da-mien-trung-mien-nam-sa-sut-cuoc-dua-tru-hang-manh-vi-gao-bao-vi-tien-185250528224552954.htm