Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) has just announced the plan to organize the 2025-2026 season.
Option 1, V.League 2025-2026 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. However, apart from the FIFA Days break, there will only be an additional 1-month break for the 33rd SEA Games.
Of course, controversy once again broke out, revolving around whether the V.League should make room for national youth teams. This is not a new story, but it has been repeated for about 10 years.
In fact, not many football clubs in Southeast Asia choose to miss even the national championship to serve youth tournaments. In particular, for strong teams like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore, this rarely happens. But that is just information for reference to football managers and football backgrounds in each country with its own characteristics.
Thailand does not need performances from national team levels to attract fans to the stadium to watch the national championship. They know how to maximize commercialization, turning football into a true spiritual "dish" and entertainment. Or in Indonesia, any away team is overwhelmed when having to travel to the opponent's field, proving the attraction of the national championship of the archipelago.
With the V.League playground, the season that recorded the explosion in the number of spectators was in the V.League 2018 after the fever of U23 Vietnam in Changzhou. The generation of players Quang Hai, Tien Dung, Van Hau, Cong Phuong, Van Toan... attracted a large number of fans to the stadium.
V.League is also making many strong strides in terms of expertise, reputation and image. VPF has made efforts and gradually built the tournament in many different ways, but it must be admitted that the attraction of V.League at this time is not as great as Thai League (Thailand) or Liga 1 (Indonesia).
With Vietnamese football, the image of national team levels has a direct influence on the attraction of the V.League.If the players play well, it will more or less bring a positive effect to the fields in the V.League.
However, the question of whether to stop the tournament to make way for youth tournaments still cannot give an accurate answer.Because, from a macro perspective, managers need to carefully consider the common interests of the club and the national team.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Cao Hoang Duc - Executive Director of Dong A Thanh Hoa Club said: "It is difficult to say that stopping competing for youth tournaments is wrong, because there are also tournaments of their own nature that need to be prioritized. However, there needs to be a clear discussion and a vote from the clubs to make a final decision. In some tournaments, V.League should not give up, such as U19 or U20 levels, because there are very few players under 20 years old who are capable of becoming pillars of V.League teams".
According to Mr. Duc, if we want to continue playing, we need to study a suitable solution to ensure the rights of some clubs with many young players. Thanh Hoa is also a team that is likely to lose many key players if V.League does not stop for the youth tournament. To contribute to the national team at all levels is an honor for every team, every owner invests in football. However, we are also responsible for the team's achievements and the money the boss spent. Therefore, there needs to be harmony in the interests of both sides to achieve the best results, Mr. Duc added.
