V.League 2024-2025 season: New expectations

From "Night Wolf" to "Loc Phat"

Today (September 14), the 2024-2025 season of V.League will officially kick off. This is the 42nd season in history, and also the 25th season since Vietnamese football turned professional. In addition, this is also the second season that Vietnamese football is organized inter-yearly (fall to spring) instead of a yearly schedule (spring to fall) to match the schedule in AFC tournaments.

There are some new things, starting with the name. After 3 seasons of cooperation, Kon Tum Ngoc Linh Ginseng Joint Stock Company has ended its sponsorship period for the top football tournament in Vietnam - the period when the tournament was branded "Night Wolf", to make way for a new sponsor - Loc Phat Bank.

Although it does not represent anything, in terms of image that people can relate to, this transformation can be expected to bring a brighter picture of what its predecessor has done for Vietnamese football. This season, Vietnam's top tournament will be called the LPBank National Football Championship 2024-2025. Will this season's V.League really "step into the light" to create a strong momentum for development?

Asking such a question but also need to be realistic, hope is still hope, but to create a breakthrough, it is not just in 1 season. In other words, this season can be considered as the foundation for a new momentum - if that is really the case. It can be seen that the tournament sponsor is also the sponsor of many teams - both in V.League, First Division and volleyball team - proving potential. At this time, fans need to see the cooperation in the right direction, effectively.

Questions and expectations

After all, of all the new things expected, the professional factor from the matches is still the most important. The teams have been working during the summer months to prepare all their plans, from finance, personnel, expertise... to aim for the set goals.

As with the starting point of previous seasons, listing the candidates is simple, but with the unpredictability of V.League, only reality can give a specific answer.

Will Nam Dinh Blue Steel defend its title? Will Hanoi FC, Hanoi Police, and Viettel The Cong return to the race after a rather inconsistent 2023-2024 season? Will Quy Nhon Binh Dinh maintain the mark of last season (runner-up)? Will Becamex Binh Duong rise with the appearance of coach Hoang Anh Tuan and a unique choice - the only team not using a foreign striker?

So, will SHB Da Nang be strong enough to survive after being promoted again? Which names are stuck in a fierce relegation battle? Or will there be a “dark horse” somewhere? And although it is a bit negative, we still cannot help but ask the question of which coach will “lose his seat” first?

Before each season, there are always questions like that so that the race is expected to be attractive, dramatic, tense, hot, fierce... Many adjectives are said just to expect one thing, a truly attractive tournament can attract fans back to the stands, can be optimistic to draw more activities to increase revenue for the team...

And to be attractive, true to the competitive nature of sports, the referee team and VAR (this season there are 4 cars) will need to make more efforts, minimizing errors and controversies. Of course, it is impossible to be 100% error-free, but if there are too many errors, even the results are incorrect, the already shaken trust will be even harder to regain.