V-League was 'rescued' at the last minute: Happy or worried?

PVF-CAND 'rescued' V-League at the last minute, but from here also sounded the alarm about the instability of Vietnamese football.

V-League was "rescued" spectacularly

As soon as the news of Quang Nam Club, the 2017 V-League champion, withdrawing from the 2025/26 campaign, a gloomy atmosphere covered the tournament. The scenario of the new V-League season having only 13 participating teams appeared clearly, bringing with it a series of consequences.

Having an odd number of teams in the V-League will break the traditional match schedule structure, causing one team to rest in each round. This not only affects the continuity in maintaining the form of the players but also negatively impacts the interest of fans.

PVF-CAND rescues V-League 2025/26 season...

Professional quality is also questioned when competition and attractiveness can hardly be fully guaranteed. The organizers have to rearrange the entire competition schedule, leading to disruptions in the preparation process of the remaining teams.

In that context, the fact that PVF-CAND accepted to "promote" to replace Quang Nam's V-League spot was considered a spectacular "rescue" that made the Organizing Committee breathe a sigh of relief.

This is good news for everyone, from the organizers, clubs to fans, because it ensures a complete season without too much disruption.

But is it fun?

The joy of V-League being saved is probably just a temporary feeling, because when looking deeply into the nature of the problem, people cannot help but worry. This is not the first time the highest level of Vietnamese football has witnessed a club withdrawing or dissolving.

V-League history has recorded too many names leaving the game for non-professional reasons, mainly financial reasons such as Navibank Saigon, Kienlongbank Kien Giang , Than Quang Ninh recently, and now Quang Nam.

But V-League is still not stable.

The fact that a club cannot continue participating due to financial or organizational reasons shows that there are unfilled gaps in the way the country's football is run.

So, behind the short-term joy of maintaining the number of teams, there are long-term concerns about the governance model, financial standardization, and especially the commitment of participating clubs.

V-League still lacks an effective mechanism for preventing and handling crises. Without fundamental reforms, last-minute team withdrawals will continue to happen frequently. And then, the joy of each opening season is always accompanied by worry: who will be the next “victim”?

V-League has been saved, but to truly develop, what Vietnamese football needs is not "fire-fighting solutions", but a solid foundation and systemic stability.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/v-league-duoc-giai-cuu-phut-chot-mung-hay-lo-2428645.html