The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is investigating Malaysian football regarding the licensing of clubs after prolonged player salary debts, spanning across various levels of the country's football system. Vietnamese football also faces similar issues, with many clubs going bankrupt, ceasing operations, or being handed back to local authorities by businesses due to difficulties in maintaining operations.
Vietnamese football has a league system, but everyone understands that this system does not operate smoothly. It has been unstable for many years due to numerous issues, not just the licensing of clubs. Even when specifically addressing licensing, it involves many requirements related to finance, youth football, and infrastructure.
The state of Vietnamese youth football can be seen by looking at recent tournaments in Southeast Asia and Asia. A V.League club has a slot to participate in the AFC Cup but withdrew to compete in the ASEAN Club Championship. Three teams share one stadium... And numerous clubs do not meet the standards. According to VFF's announcement in mid-June, only four clubs were licensed for the 2024-2025 season, while eight clubs were conditionally licensed - including the reigning V.League champion (Nam Dinh), three teams need to resolve the issue of sharing a stadium, which is considered to have financial potential, and even Hoang Anh Gia Lai, which has invested methodically for many years.
Additionally, there are four clubs that were conditionally licensed with penalties - including the reigning National Cup champion (Thanh Hoa) and teams with decent financial conditions like Hai Phong, Binh Dinh...
When the AFC has taken decisive action against Malaysian football, the decisions of "conditional licensing" and "conditional licensing with penalties" as mentioned above are like "time bombs" for VFF and Vietnamese football.
Another warning - in a very long list of warnings, if no action is taken to change, there's nothing more to say.
