Despite paying lip service to professionalism, Vietnamese football has actually regressed in the last decade, with attendances plummeting but violence and match-fixing allegations going in the other direction.
Officials have continued to harp on “professionalism” even as the football scene has been marred by poor awareness of training among footballers, flawed investments by clubs, and dodgy decisions by managers.
Mai Liem Truc, former chairman of the football governing body VFF, points out that good products and effective marketing are required for a nation’s football leagues to succeed.
He likens the VFF to a corporation, with its executive committee acting as the board, the chief of its competition board as the production chief, and official in charge of sponsorship as a marketing official.
The formula has for long been adopted by major football nations.
The VFF itself admits it is true but has failed to implement it effectively.
Its products -- the V-League, First Division, and Vietnam Cup -- have worsened with fan violence increasing and doubts of match fixing becoming rife.
Most media outlets have voiced alarm and their choice of stories has been telling – newswire VietnamNet carried “Giving up on Vietnam’s football” and “V-League becoming worse”; television channel VTC News carried “Violence, it is V-League”; and Phap Luat (Law) newspaper carried “V-League falling in disaster” and “Tricks from a billion dong game.”
Match attendances have gone down in recent years to a mere 4,000, or half the number of three years ago, the VFF website admits.
Vietnamese football has a long way to go before it becomes remotely professional, it seems.
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