1. In just the past few years, Vietnamese football has seen clubs disband or withdraw due to lack of funds. Most recently, Quang Nam - the 2017 V-League champion announced that they could no longer compete, forcing the Organizing Committee to urgently find a replacement team.

In V-League, Quang Nam's story is not rare, so it is not surprising that in the lower league, the First Division, the abandonment of the tournament also happens quite often, even more massively.

It is inevitable that football teams in Vietnam rely on sponsors and local budgets to survive, despite the fact that they have been professional for 25 years now.

quangnam2.jpg
Quang Nam (yellow shirt) is just one of many teams that disappeared due to lack of funds to participate.

2. Recently, Vietnamese fans were quite surprised when Buriram United Club - the reigning champion of Thai-League just announced a number that made the whole of Southeast Asia admire: 30,000 jerseys sold in the 2025/26 season, bringing in revenue of more than 25 million baht (about 20 billion VND).

This is not an isolated case: BG Pathum United, Muangthong United or Chiangrai United all have shirt sales of 10,000-20,000 units/year.

Thai football teams have achieved this by building sustainable club brands, connecting fan communities, investing in official stores (online and offline), and turning jerseys into street fashion items rather than just football memorabilia.

Looking at the numbers from Thai-League clearly makes the teams in V-League envious, because if they can do it, after deducting all production and marketing costs... at least each club will have a few billion more VND in their account.

buriram.jpg
Meanwhile, Buriram Utd in Thai-League just selling jerseys has brought in huge revenue.

3. In terms of expertise, Vietnamese football is now approaching Thailand, and at times even surpassing Thailand in terms of achievements. The evidence is the 2024 ASEAN Cup championship of the Vietnamese team, the U23 Vietnam team's hat-trick of Southeast Asian championships...

The expertise in the national team is narrowed and the same is true at the club level. It can be seen that last season, CAHN made Buriram struggle to win the Southeast Asian championship for the first time.

But, in terms of management, money making and operation… V-League is still inferior to Thailand, so every season Vietnamese football struggles with funding and abandons the tournament.

So, after 25 years of professionalization, up to now, V-League, most of the clubs and even the fans are still not professional enough to look at Thai-League and feel... sad.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/v-league-va-bai-hoc-tu-cau-chuyen-o-buriam-va-thai-league-2430075.html