2013 controversy After
Xuân Thành Sài Gòn was docked points for what the VFF deemed the club's unsportsmanlike conduct in fielding a non-competitive squad for their Matchday 20 meeting with
Sông Lam Nghệ An, club officials announced that the club would withdraw from the league. On 22 August 2013, the VFF approved Xuân Thành Sài Gòn's withdrawal request. Matches involving the club were vacated. The VFF is still debating if the last place club will still be relegated to
V.League 2, though the league charter states that the club in 12th place would be the only club relegated in the 2013 campaign. Relegation was cancelled for the 2013 campaign after
Xuân Thành Sài Gòn withdrew from the V.League 1 before the conclusion of the season.
QNK Quảng Nam,
Than Quảng Ninh and
Hùng Vương An Giang, as winners, first runners-up and second runners-up respectively, were promoted from the
2013 V.League 2 season.
Kienlongbank Kiên Giang failed to apply for the 2014 campaign and subsequently folded during the offseason.
2014 match-fixing scandal Vissai Ninh Bình wrote to the
Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and to the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company to be allowed to stop their participation in the league and also the
AFC Cup due to 13 players being involved in match fixing. They had played eight league matches and were third from bottom at the time. Following their withdrawal from the league, all their results were declared null and void. Due to the match fixing scandal and withdrawal of
Vissai Ninh Bình, it was decided that the bottom-placed team at the end of the season will take part in a play-off match against the third-placed team in the
First Division for the right to play in the V-League next season.
One owner, many teams On July 5, 2019, Đoàn Nguyên Đức, chairman of
Hoàng Anh Gia Lai Club, commented on the situation of one owner owning multiple teams in the V.League. Bầu Đức's statement was reminiscent of Đỗ Quang Hiển - who was then the owner and special sponsor of 7 clubs in the V.League 1 and V.League 2. Previously, in 2018, Đoàn Nguyên Đức also said that the situation of one owner owning multiple teams would reduce the motivation to invest in Vietnamese football. Public opinion believes that in the 10 years from 2009 to 2019, only two consecutive championships in 2018 and 2019 were
Hanoi FC clearly demonstrating their strength, thanks to a national team squad that sometimes reached 10 people; the remaining championships all had the "fingerprints" of the point-scoring relationships between Hanoi - Da Nang - Quang Nam - Saigon - Quang Ninh - Hong Linh Ha Tinh (which are the clubs of Bầu Hiển). The 2022 season also met with controversy due to public opinion that the championship of
Hanoi FC was won partly due to referee decisions in favor of the purple team. In addition, Bầu Hiển caused controversy when personally went down to encourage and give money to his own teams in matches between each other. In 2012, after
Sài Gòn Xuân Thành failed to win the championship when they were held to a draw by
Hà Nội T&T in the final round, allowing
SHB Đà Nẵng to win, owner Nguyễn Đức Thụy announced that he would quit football because of too much injustice and oppression; in the 2013 season, he officially disbanded the team. FLC Group chairman
Trịnh Văn Quyết, after withdrawing sponsorship from
Thanh Hóa in 2018, also hinted that "you can't win when you only have one team".
Match-fixing In recent years, the phenomenon of "asking for points and giving points" and "accumulating points" to win or stay in the league had occurred. The formula of "3 away – 3 return" has become popular for teams in an alliance to maximize points for each other. Many matches have taken place with abnormal manifestations that have caused anger for fans because of the spirit of competition that is considered to be weak, not giving their all. The tournament organizer has also repeatedly issued sanctions, such as subtracting points from football teams in matches that are not active, but the situation of "giving points" still continues. The People's Police newspaper noted that the problem of match-fixing is also related to the issue of "one owner, multiple teams". In 2017, the public raised many doubts when
Hanoi FC, who were full of hope to win the championship, unexpectedly drew 4-4 with
Than Quảng Ninh in a match that the capital team had led by 2 goals. It is worth noting that this score was just enough for
Quảng Nam to win the championship for the first time. Statistics from the 2019 season show that
Ho Chi Minh City only won 23% of points from
Đà Nẵng,
Sài Gòn,
Quảng Nam and
Quảng Ninh, while
Hà Nội received 13 out of 15 maximum points before these teams. In the 2017 season,
FLC Thanh Hóa lost 22 points to the "brotherhood" group while
Quảng Nam lost 9 points. In a statement in the 2022 season, VPF had to ask the teams to play their best, not to give points to each other.
Refereeing The refereeing issue has been going on in the tournament for many years and has caused a lot of resentment in the public. Many controversial decisions, even mistakes by referees, have eroded the trust of clubs and fans in the
organizers, and the image of the tournament has also been affected. In a statement in the 2023 season,
Vũ Tiến Thành, the coach of HCM City Club, said that there is a group of referees who are manipulated, and some referees are making the image of the refereeing force worse. Thành also questioned the referee's ideology when working. The referee assignment for the tournament has also been questioned. This has led to the disappointment of fans when some referees who do not meet the standards are often assigned to important matches. Some people even question whether the referees are "not biased then weak in terms of expertise" when there have been too many mistakes occurring continuously. One of the temporary solutions proposed to address this situation is to hire foreign referees to officiate some of the tournament matches. Due to the continuous occurrence of refereeing errors, which have affected the results of matches, the need to equip
VAR for V.League has become increasingly urgent to improve the quality of the tournament. From the end of 2022, VPF has begun to carry out the necessary procedures to soon implement VAR in V.League. VPF expects VAR to begin to be deployed on a trial basis from the second phase of the 2023 season, before being applied officially from the 2023-2024 season.
Conflict of interest related to sponsors The V.League regulations typically stipulate that clubs are not allowed to exploit sponsorships since the date the league regulations are issued or when notified by the
organizer. However, if the team already has a main sponsor that operates in the same industry as the league's main sponsor, their rights are still protected. The cases of
Hoàng Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) in 2018 with VPMilk and in 2022 with
Red Bull are typical examples of this exception. However, ahead of the 2023 season, when VPF announced to HAGL that the team's new sponsor (Carabao Corporation) was in conflict of interest with the league's main sponsor and requested the team not to use the images of the new sponsor within the scope of the tournament, controversy ensued. VPF's regulations were met with fierce backlash from fans who were accused of making it difficult for clubs, hindering the development of Vietnamese football. HAGL also said that VPF's decision was "completely unreasonable and did not create conditions for the club to develop", and threatened to withdraw from V.League if VPF did not allow them to advertise for the new sponsor.
Television rights Television rights have been one of the most pressing issues in the top-tier club competition in
Vietnam for many years. The first time V.League "sold" television rights was in the 2005 season. However, the value of the contract signed between VFF and the television stations at that time was not really significant. In order for a match to be broadcast live, VFF and the clubs had to pay a fee and even cover the cost of accommodation, travel, and allowances for the
television station. At the end of 2010, the V.League broadcasting rights were sold by VFF to
An Vien Television (AVG) for 20 years, with a price of VND 6 billion for the first year and then a 10% annual increase. However, after the establishment of VPF, this company took back the V.League broadcasting rights contract from AVG and committed to exploiting at least VND 50 billion per year from the broadcasting rights. However, the deal fell through at the last minute after bầu Kiên was arrested. In October 2022, VPF reached a television rights agreement with
FPT Telecom for 5 seasons, from the 2023 season to the 2026–27 season. The agreement ensures that each year,
FPT Telecom will pay 2.5 million USD for one season, 20 times higher than the previous contract, and on average, each club will receive several billion dong in television rights in one season. ==Teams==