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Association football in Vietnam is run by the Vietnam Football Federation. The federation administers the Vietnamese national football teams including the Men's and Women's teams. It is also responsible for the national football leagues including the V.League 1, which is the top tier of professional football in Vietnam.

Football (Vietnamese: Bóng đá) is the most popular sport in Vietnam.^[1] Its annual V-League competition has taken place since 1980 till now (except in 1988 and 1999).

When Vietnam was divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, two national teams existed. The North Vietnamese team was not very active, playing almost exclusively other Communist countries between 1956 and 1966 whilst the South Vietnamese team took part in the first two AFC Asian Cup finals, finishing fourth both times.

History

Football came into Vietnam with the French in 1896. It was first introduced in Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ), and then spread to other parts of the colony - the central and northern parts.

Until 1954

Cochinchina

The first people who played football in Saigon were French civil servants, merchants and soldiers; some Vietnamese then picked it up. A club called Cercle Sportif Saigonnais (Saigon Sports Circle) was founded and later the oval-shaped ball was replaced by a round-shaped one and the games were played at the city park, called Jardin de la Ville (today Tao Đàn Park).

In 1905, a British warship named after King Alfred visited Saigon and its football team had a friendly match against a local team composed of Vietnamese and French players. This was considered as the first international football match in Vietnam.

E. Breton, a member of France's L'Union des Sociétés Français des Sports Athlétiques brought football rules into Vietnam in 1906, and as a chairman of Cercle Sportif Saigonnais, he reorganized the club similar to football clubs in France. Some other clubs started to appear, such as Infanterie, Saigon Sport, Athletic Club, Stade Militaire, Tabert Club. Local cups were soon held afterwards. As a well-trained team, Cercle Sportif Saigonnais won for many times, 1907, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1916.

Some Vietnamese learned the game's regulations and established their own teams. The first two Vietnamese teams founded in 1907 were Gia Định Sport run by Ba Vẻ and Phú Khai and Ngôi Sao Xanh (Blue Star) run by Nguyễn Đình Trị. These two teams then came together to form "Ngôi sao Gia Định" (Gia Định Star). Prior to 1920, it had defeated all other teams, including Cercle Sportif Saigonnais (in 1917), and became the champion.

Other teams include: Victoria Sportive, Commerce Sport, Jean Compte, Sport Cholonaise, Khánh Hội Sport, Tân Định Sport, Gò Vấp, Hiệp Hòa, Chợ Quán, Phú Nhuận, Đồng Nai, Enfants de Troupe; in other provinces: Thủ Dầu Một, Cần Thơ, Sóc Trăng, Sa Đéc, Gò Công, Châu Đốc, Mỹ Tho. New grounds were developed, namely Citadelle, Renault (in front of current Thống Nhất Stadium), Fourière, Mayer, and Marine.

Football fans and some leaders then managed to form the (Vietnamese) Department of Football. Nguyễn Đình Trị was elected as head of board of directors and the Department itself developed its own field by buying more land. At that time, there was already a French Department of Football, therefore the two departments had no cooperation but some matches as in Cochin China Championship. In a match between Cercle Sportif Saigonnais and Ngôi sao Gia Định in 1925, Paul Thi, Ngôi sao's player was dismissed by a French referee, that led to his everlasting suspension and further conflicts between the two departments. The Championship was then delayed for many years until 1932, in which six Vietnamese and three French teams took part.

Between 1925 and 1935, Ngôi sao Gia Định were known for many famous players, e.g. Sách, Thơm, Nhiều, Quý, Tịnh, Xường, Trung, Thi, Vi, Mùi. About 29 cups were held, in which Ngôi sao got the champion for 8 times.

The first woman football team appeared in Cần Thơ in 1932, called Cái Vồn. Several years later, another team called "Rạch Giá" was founded. In 1933, Cái Vồn had a match with men's Paul Bert team at Mayer Stadium, and the two-all draw became historic in Vietnamese football history.

Tonkinchina and the Central Zone

Football came to the North of Vietnam (or Tonkinchina) in about 1906–1907. Some local press told about matches played by Legion Đáp Cầu and Olympique Hải Phòng in 1909. On the first match, Olympique won by 2-1, but they failed by 8-1 next time. In February 1912, Hanoi Football club (Stade Hanoien) was founded. The team was composed of Vietnamese and French players.

1954-1975 period

Football activities in Vietnam were delayed during World War II and the Indochina Wars and soon restored after 1954, when the Geneva Accord was signed, causing division between North and South Vietnam.^[2]

North Vietnam

In North Vietnam, Thể Công team of People's Army was established on 23 September 1954. The national football team gained notable achievements at some regional events, such as Ganefo (Indonesia, 1963) and Asian Ganefo (Cambodia, 1966). The national league was called the North Vietnam V-League.

South Vietnam

By the late 1950s, the Southern football team became one of the four strongest teams in Asia, as they advanced into the final round of 1960 AFC Asian Cup together with South Korea, Israel and Republic of China. The team also won 10th Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, 1966.

Clubs AJS, Cảnh sát (Police), Tổng Tham Mưu (ARVN General Staff) and Quan Thuế (Customs) dominated the South's football until 1975. The national league was called the South Vietnam V-League.

Since 1975

Vietnam returned to international football at 1991, when they participated at the 1991 Southeast Asian Games. They drew 2–2 to the host Philippines, marked the first ever Vietnamese football performance. During 1990s-2000s, Vietnamese successes at football are limited, mostly lack of investments. Vietnam only achieved successes in the AFF Championship, but they only won it one, at 2008 AFF Championship. Also, scandals in Vietnamese football remains high and corrupted.

Despite of this, Vietnam made some notable performances, at 2007 AFC Asian Cup when Vietnam shocked international football by gaining a ticket to the quarter-finals, especially their 2–0 incredible victory to the Gulf champions, the UAE. Following with it, was the 2008 AFF Cup triumph, marked a successful era of Vietnamese football.

In 2016, Vietnamese football enjoyed larger successes than they ever expected. For the first time in the history, Vietnam qualified for the first ever FIFA sanctioned tournament, the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup, and stunning the world by qualified to the round of sixteen, eventually lost to later runners-up Russia 0–7. While Vietnamese futsal team had managed a successful performance in Colombia, the u20 Vietnam have been, for the first time, added the name Vietnam in an 11-men football tournament, by defeating host Bahrain to qualify for a larger FIFA event, the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. It is considered as a shock of history.

In 2018, the Vietnam national under-23 football team had recorded a remarkable achievement during the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, when they won silver medal after losing to Uzbekistan in the final, thus became the first and the only Southeast Asian team to qualify to the final of an AFC tournament since 1999. With the same year, Thái Sơn Nam also won silver medal at 2018 AFC Futsal Club Championship after losing to Iran's team Mes Sungun in the final make Vietnam to appear in 2 AFC Competition finals in one year. Later that year, the Olympic team with most players who had competed at the U-23 Championship in January, won the fourth place of the 2018 Asian Games which they lost South Korea 1-3 in the semi-final and UAE on penalty shoot-out in the bronze medal match.

With most of these young players, Vietnam created a fever in 2019 AFC Asian Cup, which the national team ran to the quarter-finals only to be ended by eventual runners-up Japan with the score 0–1.

Football culture in Vietnam

Despite achieved less successes than other teams in Southeast Asia and has never considered to be a top team of Asia, Vietnam is often noted for demonstrating a spirit style of playing, as well as passionate supporters when playing football.^[2][3] Supporters of Vietnam team, regardless of age levels, often comes and cheers for the team of their country with full spirits. Vietnam has gained recognitions from other supporters of other countries for demonstrating a passionate style of cheering.

In 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup and 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, Vietnam had won fair-play awards.

National identity

Football is an important national identity in Vietnam as part of their fight against negative reputation that was left back by the tragic Vietnam War, as well as the fact that Vietnamese football was developed very late than the rest, which only established at 1990s after the end of Sino-Vietnamese War and international isolation. Since 1990s, football has become extremely important for the society in Vietnam, regardless the rich or the poor. Despite ups and downs, football still plays a role on the rise of Vietnamese national identity, and often ties with its successes. Vietnam has some of the most passionate supporters in the world, often attend in large number anytime Vietnam plays in a major tournament. This has been witnessed in 2019 AFC Asian Cup, which its fans cooked traditional Vietnamese foods and even smuggled foods to the hotel to support its players.^[4]

Linking with nationalist sentiment

Vietnamese take pride on football heavily and in Vietnam, football is a God sport for the Vietnamese population in majority. When the national team won big matches, the streets are often overwhelmed by large Vietnamese crowds, demonstrating nationalist chants, singing Vietnamese nationalist songs. It has been proven like in 2007 AFC Asian Cup, where Vietnam qualified to the quarter-finals and the only host in this tournament to do so, or in 2008 AFF Championship which Vietnam won, and recently 2018 AFC U-23 Championship which its Olympic team won silver medal after losing the final.^[5] It has also stemmed the old, long bloody rivalry exists between Vietnam and China, their historical adversary.^[6] Anti-Vietnamese comments have also been seriously noticed, and attacked by Vietnamese supporters. Some fans, notably Uzbek and Thai fans who had disdains of Vietnam, had to block its Facebook until the Vietnamese angers slowed down.

According to the Bleacher Report, after the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, they were totally astonished and shocked with the massive celebration of Vietnamese people.^[7]

Criticisms

Vietnam's football is often marred with heavy corruption and sport violence, which is very common in the field.^[8] Players often play with the most violative and brutal as possible. There has been many cases players often suffered heavy casualties and some had even had to leave or give up playing. Due to the nature of violence in Vietnam, fans and supporters often get angry with the poor behaviors of footballers, especially Vietnamese footballers.

Marian Mihail, who once coached FLC Thanh Hóa F.C., claimed Vietnamese players as "unprofessional" and "uneducated", criticizing Vietnamese players harshly.

Competitions

FIFA World Cup

Vietnam had never qualified for any FIFA World Cup tournaments.

AFC Asian Cup

Vietnam, as South Vietnam, had marked notable performances, winning 4th places in both the 1956 and 1960 editions.

Since the return of Vietnam to international stage at 1991, Vietnam enjoyed a smaller level of success, but it has been noted for notable achievements during 2007 AFC Asian Cup as host, when Vietnam was the only host team to qualify to quarterfinals before losing to eventual winner Iraq.

AFC Asian Cup record										Qualifications record
Year	Result	Pos.	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1956	Fourth Place	4/4	3	0	1	2	6	9		2	0	1	1	7	3
1960	Fourth Place	4/4	3	0	0	3	2	12		2	2	0	0	5	1
1964	Did not qualify
1968
1972
1976	Did not enter									Did not enter
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996	Did not qualify									3	2	0	1	13	5
2000										3	2	0	1	14	2
2004										6	3	0	3	8	13
2007	Quarter-finals	8/16	4	1	1	2	4	7		Host
2011	Did not qualify									6	1	2	3	6	11
2015										6	1	0	5	5	15
2019	Quarter-finals	8/24	5	1	1	3	5	7		11	4	4	3	15	10

AFF Cup

Teams

Men

• Vietnam National Football Team


• Vietnam National Under-23 Football Team


• Vietnam National Under-21 Football Team


• Vietnam National Under-19 Football Team


• Vietnam National Under-16 Football Team


• Vietnam National Under-14 Football Team


• Vietnam National Futsal Team


• Vietnam National Beach Soccer Team

Women

• Vietnam Women's National Football Team


• Vietnam Women's National Under-19 Football Team


• Vietnam Women's National Under-16 Football Team


• Vietnam Women's National Under-14 Football Team


• Vietnam Women's National Futsal Team

Domestic leagues

For men

At the end of the 2015 season, the number of clubs in each league had changed. The 2016 V.League 1 contains 14 clubs, the 2016 V.League 2 contains 10 clubs, and the 2016 Vietnamese Second Division contains 14 clubs, with each group containing seven teams.

Other leagues for men include:

• Vietnamese National U-21 Football Championship


• Vietnamese National U-19 Football Championship


• Vietnamese National U-17 Football Championship


• Vietnamese National U-15 Football Championship


• Vietnamese National Youth Football Championship


• Vietnamese National Kid Football Championship


• Vietnamese National Futsal League


• Vietnamese National Beach Soccer League

For women

Other leagues for women include:

• Vietnamese National Women's U-19 Football Championship

Domestic cups

• Vietnamese National Football Cup


• Vietnamese National Football Super Cup


• Vietnamese National Futsal Cup


• LS Futsal Cup

International tournaments

• Ho Chi Minh City Cup


• VTV-T&T Cup


• VFF Cup


• Thanh Niên Newspaper Cup


• BTV Cup

Asian eligibility

Uniquely, Vietnam has two chances to acquire Asian gold, as the V-League winner is eligible for the AFC Champions League while the Vietnamese Cup winner goes to the AFC Cup.

See also

• Vietnam national football team


• South Vietnam national football team


• Vietnam Football Federation


• List of association football competitions

References