Foreign players flood Vietnam volleyball tournament

Hire foreign soldiers for seasonal work

This is a quite positive signal in the context that the Vietnam Volleyball Federation (VFV) has "given the green light" to allow teams to hire foreign players to compete in part or all of the national championship from 2022.

In addition to the annual operating costs of up to several billion VND, every team now has to worry about the cost of hiring foreign players twice a year. Without this source of reinforcement, the possibility of relegation is entirely possible. The amount of money spent on buying foreign players to play in just a few matches within a month is very large. That is why the Hanoi Volleyball Club had to consider and hesitate for a long time before deciding to bring in a foreign player to aim for relegation.

Ngoại binh tràn ngập giải bóng chuyền Việt Nam- Ảnh 1. — Rivan Nurmulki (left) joined The Cong Tan Cang in phase 2. Photo: AVC

In phase 1, the teams will play a total of 7 matches (5 group stage matches and 2 matches in the final round of the Hung Vuong Cup 2025). However, in phase 2, which will start in early October, the total number of matches for the leading group will be only 4 (2 group stage matches and 2 matches in the final round) and the number of matches for the relegation group will be 5 (2 group stage matches and 3 matches in the ranking round). In particular, the last 2 teams of the relegation group will meet each other in the reverse final match.

Huge expense

No volleyball team has publicly disclosed the cost of hiring foreign players - estimated to be equal to or more than the 500 million VND bonus for the champion of the tournament. At current prices, all 16 teams hire foreign players, at least 25,000 - 30,000 USD, at most around 40,000 - 60,000 USD/month. That means the teams have to spend an average of approximately 10,000 USD per match for the appearance of foreign players on the field, without knowing the probability of success.

The story of world-class Azerbaijani star Polina Rahimova joining Geleximco Thai Binh for 47,000 USD, or more than 1 billion VND in 2022, is still hot news today. The more famous the player is and the more the team needs him, the price will increase proportionally.

This season, foreign players from many countries such as Azerbaijan, Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Cambodia, Cuba, the US, Russia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria... and Thailand are no longer a rare or majority source. The law allows hiring many foreign players, but at any time on the field, only one player of non-Vietnamese nationality can be present. Any team that is willing to hire 2 athletes like the female Duc Giang Chemicals, the huge rental fee mentioned above will automatically double.

Among the foreign players who have been and are about to be registered, the 38-year-old Polish striker Michal Kubiak is still the most notable figure. Kubiak returns to the Ho Chi Minh City Police Volleyball Team, where he played in the first phase as the 2012 World League champion, and twice won the FIVB World Championship in 2014 and 2018.

Other notable names include: Rivan Nurmulki (Indonesia, The Cong), Federico Pereyra (Argentina, Sanest Khanh Hoa), Miroslava Paskova (Bulgaria, LPBank Ninh Binh women's team), Roni Jones-Perry (USA, VTV Binh Dien Long An women's team)...

The fact that VFV and the host of phase 2 (Ninh Binh) changed the organization time, pushing the competition schedule earlier than originally, is causing headaches for the football teams regarding logistics, especially the travel and stay of foreign players, whose schedules are very tight.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ngoai-binh-tran-ngap-giai-bong-chuyen-viet-nam-196250925212419916.htm