The first national futsal tournament has foreign players
"This year, the tournament is open, allowing registration of foreign players and overseas Vietnamese to compete in order to increase resources and attractiveness, thereby advancing the Vietnamese futsal team," said VFF Vice President and Head of the futsal committee Tran. Anh Tu explains the adjustment for the 2023 season.
In fact, this decision was approved by the VIII Executive Committee of VFF (term 2018-2022) on November 5, 2022 in Hanoi. In addition to improving the quality of domestic and tournament players, the appearance of foreign soldiers is also expected to attract more attention from the audience as well as sponsors. This has been demonstrated through the development of two strong futsal cultures in the region, Indonesia and Thailand.
Nevertheless, there are still some problems. We are ready to enter the 17th year, but the league is still semi-professional, and many clubs still have difficulties in working capital, let alone hiring foreigners. This unconsciously caused a greater level gap between rich and poor teams. According to some sources, the cost of employing foreigners is at least $2000 per month, which is several times the average salary of domestic players. Previously, he paid 700 million Vietnamese dong to Iranian star Hussein Tayebi every month. This is also the only five-player team with foreign players in the team, but it can only be applied for at the Asian Club Cup.
This year's tournament has the participation of eight clubs, including defending champion Sahako, runner-up Thai Son Nam, Thai Son Bac, Khanh Hoa, Tan Hiep Hung, Cao Bang, and two rookies Hanoi FC and Song Han FC. Teams compete in a round-robin two rounds to calculate points and place the final order. The first leg will take place from March 19 to April 18, and the return leg from June 28 to August 4.
This is the first season the tournament will be played in the form of home - away, instead of competing as before. Teams have the right to change foreign soldiers when they are injured or have not met their expertise, but the time must follow the tournament rules.
The winning team is expected to receive a prize of 500 million VND, the runner-up is 200 million VND and the third is 100 million VND.
The Vietnam National Futsal Championship was first organized by VFF in 2007, the championship belonged to CLV Tra Dilmah Hanoi. Thai Son Nam has the best record with 11 crowns, two runners-up and two thirds. In the 2022 season, Sahako was crowned, cutting off the series of six consecutive championships of Thai Son Nam.
The national futsal tournament is the basis for selecting personnel for the Vietnamese futsal team. The team has made a big splash with two times participating in the Futsal FIFA World Cup in 2016 and 2021, and then made it through the group stage.
