Recently, Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) has presented 2 competition plans for the 2025-2026 season. This plan has been sent to professional clubs to ask for comments before the new season preparation conference takes place.
Option 1, the 2025-2026 season will kick off with the National Super Cup on August 9, 2025, V.League will open from August 15, 2025 and is expected to end on June 18, 2026.
In addition to the FIFA Days break as prescribed, option 1 also has an additional break of about 2 months to make room for the 33rd SEA Games and the U23 Vietnam U23 Vietnam to compete in the U23 Asian finals.
Option 2, the U23 team will not participate in the U23 Asian Cup finals, the expected start and end of the season is similar to option 1. In addition to the FIFA Days break, there will only be an additional 1-month break for the 33rd SEA Games.
The common point of both options is the breaks for youth teams participating in Southeast Asia or Asia. The story is not really new, V.League sometimes has to stop for the U19 and U20 teams to compete internationally, let alone the important level like U23.
But this move made fans unhappy. V.League has made many important steps forward in terms of organization, image, and professional quality, but the way the competition schedule is arranged is still not suitable.
Also because the above breaks, along with the club's international competition schedule, will have overlapping competition schedules.
2023 witnessed a turning point in Vietnamese football when V.League changed the 2-year season time frame (sliced from year to year), instead of being limited to 1 year. This trend helps V.League teams gradually approach the competition time of Asian and international tournaments. The player transfer stage is therefore also more favorable.
Of course, VPF has its own difficulties because the U23 Asian Cup or the SEA Games are important arenas. Calling up the strongest squads while the V.League takes place will cause some teams to suffer heavy losses in terms of numbers.
However, as tournament operators, VPF is forced to balance the interests of clubs and the football community. The performances of national team levels create great influence in the community. On the contrary, it is the clubs that form the V.League - the foundation for the team's strength.
Thai League - a tournament considered more developed than V.League also encountered many problems because of the interests of the Football Federation and professional football teams. But at some point, the clubs had to sit down with the managers to aim for the most developed and best tournament.
