Football in Vietnam is run by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF). The federation administers the Vietnam men's and women's national football teams. It is responsible for the national football leagues, including the V.League 1, which is a top tier league. Association football is the most popular sport in Vietnam. According to a Nielsen survey, approximately 75% of the people in Vietnam are football fans.
Football as we know it today, was reported to have come into Vietnam in 1896 with French influence due to colonization. It was first introduced in the then colony of Cochinchina (modern-day southern Vietnam) and then spread to the central and northern parts.
When Vietnam was divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam (between 1954 and 1976), two national teams existed. The North Vietnamese played almost exclusively against other communist countries between 1956 and 1966, while the South Vietnamese team took part in the first two AFC Asian Cup finals, finishing fourth both times.
History
Until 1954
Cochinchina Football was introduced to Saigon by French civil servants, merchants and soldiers. Some locals also adopted the game at the time. A club called Cercle Sportif Saigonnais (Saigon Sports Circle) was founded. 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 is considered 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. As a chairman of the Cercle Sportif Saigonnais, he reorganized the club similar to football clubs in France. Other clubs, such as Infanterie, Saigon Sport, Athletic Club, Stade Militaire and Tabert Club, were founded around that time. Local cups were soon held afterwards. The Cercle Sportif Saigonnais was the most successful team, winning in 1907, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, and in 1916.
Some Vietnamese locals learned the game's rules 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 merged to form Étoile de Giadinh (Gia Định Star). Prior to 1920, it had defeated all other teams, including the Cercle Sportif Saigonnais (in 1917), and became the champion.
Other teams of the time 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, and Enfants de Troupe; in other provinces: Thủ Dầu Một, Cần Thơ, Sóc Trăng, Sa Đéc, Gò Công, Châu Đốc, Mỹ Tho. New grounds were also 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. At that time, there was already a French Department of Football. The French and Vietnamese departments had no cooperation, but some matches were played between sides representing each department, for instance in the Cochinchina Championship. In a match between Cercle Sportif Saigonnais and Étoile de Gia Định in 1925, Paul Thi of Étoile was dismissed by a French referee. This led to his everlasting suspension and further conflicts between the two departments. The Championship was then delayed for many years until it was once again held in 1932, with six Vietnamese and three French teams taking part.
Between 1925 and 1935, Étoile de Giadinh were known for many famous players, e.g. Sách, Thơm, Nhiều, Quý, Tịnh, Xường, Trung, Thi, Vi, Mùi. About 29 cups were held, with Étoile winning 8 of them.
The first women's football team appeared in Vĩnh Long 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. The match ended in a two-all draw and became historic in Vietnamese football history.
Tonkinchina and the Central Zone Football came to the North of Vietnam (or Tonkinchina) in about 1906–1907. Local press reported on matches played by Legion Đáp Cầu and Olympique Hải Phòng in 1909. Olympique won the first match 2–1, whereas the second match was won 8-1 by Legion. In February 1912, Hanoi Football club (Stade Hanoien) was founded. The team was composed of Vietnamese and French players.
Vietnam pre-autonomy era Under French colonial rule, the French Indochina Football Federation hosted a few matches against other national teams, fielding a selection composed mainly of players from Saigon or the French Cochinchina football league. Notably, they faced the China in 1936 and 1948. In April 1947, the French Indochina Football Federation selection team went for a tour in British Hong Kong, and played against the British Hong Kong national team.
Two months before signing independence accords, the earliest recognized international game of Vietnam was on 16 January 1949, in a 3-3 draw against South Korea in Saigon. Vietnam later became a member of FIFA in 1952 and the AFC in 1954.The A–Z of Asian Football 97–98; 1997 Asian Football Confederation香港足球總會九十週年紀念特刊 (Hong Kong Football Association 90th Anniversary Booklet) 2004
1954-1976 period Vietnam gained its independence from France in 1949, during the First Indochina War. After the war, the Geneva Accord was signed on 21 July 1954, dividing the North and South of Vietnam. As a result, Vietnam soon had different football national teams, co-existing during the Vietnam War. Vietnam (later South Vietnam) became a member of FIFA in 1952 and the AFC in 1954.
North Vietnam In North Vietnam, Thể Công team of the People's Army was established on 23 September 1954. The national football team gained notable achievements at some regional events, such as the Ganefo (Indonesia, 1963) and the Asian Ganefo (Cambodia, 1966). The national league was called the North Vietnam V-League.
South Vietnam By the late 1950s, South Vietnam national football team had become one of the four strongest teams in Asia, as they advanced into the final round of the 1960 AFC Asian Cup together with South Korea, Israel and the Republic of China. The team also won the 10th Merdeka Cup in Malaysia, 1966. It was one of strongest teams in Southeast Asia.
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 1976 Vietnam was reunited on 2 July 1976 and returned to international football in 1991, when they participated in the 1991 Southeast Asian Games. They drew 2–2 against the Philippines (the hosting nation), in the first ever match played by a united Vietnam. During the 1990s-2000s, Vietnam had limited international success, mostly due to a lack of investments. Vietnamese football also suffered several corruption scandals, including the 2005 Vietnamese football match-fixing scandal.
Despite this, Vietnam made some notable performances, at the 2007 AFC Asian Cup when Vietnam shocked international football by advancing to the quarter-finals. Their 2–0 victory against the UAE was especially remarkable. The following year, Vietnam won the 2008 AFF Championship, marking a successful period for Vietnamese football, the “first golden generation” and renaissance of Vietnamese football.
Vietnamese football suffered heavy decline in 2009-2016, where they would fail to qualify for 3 Asian cups, and lose the next 4 AFF Suzuki Cups. They also could not qualify for the FIFA World Cup. Meanwhile, the Olympic team did not do well in the next few Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games.
Following the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, Vietnam would start to have tremendous success, after hiring Park Hang-Seo as coach. In 2018, the Vietnam national under-23 football team recorded another remarkable achievement during the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, winning the silver medal after losing to Uzbekistan in the final, thus becoming the first Southeast Asian team to qualify for the final of an AFC tournament since 1998 when the Thailand U17 won the 1998 AFC U-17 Championship. Later that year, the Olympic team, consisting largely of players who had competed at the U-23 Championship in January, won the fourth place of the 2018 Asian Games, losing 1-3 to South Korea in the semi-final and the 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, in which the national team made it to the quarter-finals where they were defeated by eventual runners-up Japan with the score 0–1. Then, in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Vietnam won its first gold medal in men's football since 1959.
On 6 February 2022, the Vietnam women's national football team qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time.
In the 2021 Southeast Asian Games, as hosts, both the men's and women's football team successfully defended their gold medal title in front of home fans.
Football culture in Vietnam
National identity Football is an important part of the national identity in Vietnam. Although having a long history, modern 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.
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.
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.
Women's football
The emergence of women's football in Vietnam was marked by the establishment of the Cai-Von Women's Football Team (Equipe Feminine de Cai-Von) in 1932, the first women's football team in Vietnam and Asia. Phan Khắc Sửu, an agricultural engineer, with the approval of the South Vietnam government and the Football General Bureau, came up with the idea of forming a women's team and gathered 30 young women to join the team, most of whom came from farming. At that time, it was extremely difficult to mobilize women to participate in football due to the constraints of feudal morality. The outstanding names of the Cai-Von team include Mười Kén, Út Thôi, Hai Tỉnh, Ba Triệu, Út Lẹo..., of which the most outstanding is the French striker Marguerite, who was later elected captain.