Vietnamese Football: Closing a Chapter to Ease the Pain

Bac Ninh FC has recently inked a deal with its 13th newcomer, a massive purchasing effort to ensure they have the quality to stay in their debut V-League campaign. Counting from 1999, Bac Ninh FC is the 6th fresh team in the V-League.

In another development, in the First Division, the name Dong Thap is officially no more. The team that was twice national champion has closed its glorious yet tragic history after changing its name to Binh Minh Sai Gon FC and moving its "residence" to Ho Chi Minh City.

It ended almost in silence, marked only by a post on the club's fanpage and a tepid response from the public. A well-known name vanished with scant interest, despite the fact that the whole Mekong Delta region now has just a single professional club: Long An (Tay Ninh).

This comes as no surprise. Since leaving the top flight over ten years ago, Dong Thap football has been steadily declining, even falling to the Second Division in some seasons. There is no indication of a return.

Yet the paradox is right there. Looking at the next First Division season, we see Hung Yen, Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen, and also Quang Ninh making a comeback.

That suggests starting a new club with aspirations for the V-League is not overly drawn-out or complex. The influx of new teams in the V-League since 2019 is evidence. Another striking example is that teams from the Red River Delta now make up nearly 60% of all clubs from the V-League down to the First Division.

Take Bac Ninh FC, for instance, which was established only in 2023, following the local government's 2018 initiative to develop professional football. So, to build a professional club, if the necessary conditions are in place, it takes just about five years.

This is the same approach that has brought forth a host of new names in the northern region, even from areas with no football tradition, such as Thai Nguyen, Phu Tho, Ninh Binh… In the South, too, Truong Tuoi Dong Nai (previously Truong Tuoi Binh Phuoc) followed a similar model.

Thus, regarding Dong Thap football's rebranding, it is argued that a clean break with the past would be preferable to pretending to "uphold" or "cherish" traditions, as the club's statement claimed or as shown by the two stars on the new logo representing the two titles.

It is better to be an entirely new club than to carry the weight of a former champion. Professional football demands clarity: if the conditions are right, tradition can be created in just a few years. Without substance, decades of past glory are meaningless.

The "exit" of Dong Thap football exemplifies the outdated methods and the avoidable entanglement of football in the Western region. Could this be why the area's football has become a "blank space"?

However, it must also be said that the decision by Binh Minh Sai Gon's management to rename the club was a necessary one. It serves as a classic case, a final lesson to end the outdated football model that was fraught with struggle, entanglement, and deadlock in the club-local relationship, all due to an attempt to keep a name alive.