The years 2004, 2005 and 2008 can be seen as the golden age of the V-League internationally when there are two representatives participating each season in the group stage of the AFC Champions League, the most prestigious playing field on the continent for CLUB. Specifically, they are HAGL, Binh Dinh in 2004, 2005 and 2008 are Binh Duong and Nam Dinh.
But then the V-League showed signs of lag compared to the development of many Southeast Asian soccer, usually compared to Thailand. For the 2015 and 2016 season, the V-League had only 1 representative to participate in the group stage and 1 play-off stage of the AFC Champions League. As of the 2017-2020 season, Vietnamese football has only one team left in the AFC Champions League play-offs.
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Please explain further. The reason, in the aforementioned years, Vietnamese football had no representatives to compete in the group stage of the AFC Champions League because the Asian Football Federation (AFC) considered the performance in previous years of Vietnamese clubs in the Asian tournament. But the achievements of Vietnamese clubs are so poor that in the next five years, no club is selected to participate in the group stage, but only has the right to play the play-offs.
It was not until the 2021 V-League, the champion team of the highest tournament in Vietnam, to be able to participate in the group stage of the AFC Champions League (Viettel). The soldier’s jersey team benefits from… Hanoi FC’s excellent performance index at the 2019 AFC Cup when Hien’s chosen team reached the regional final. The score in the AFC classification for Vietnamese soccer adds up significantly. In other words, good results in the Asian arena, particularly the AFC Cup, helped the V-League to rack up some important points.
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Right now, according to Asean Football, the ranking as of early January 2021 determines that the V-League is ranked 13th in Asia and 6th in East Asia. The Vietnamese tournament is about 4,000 points behind the Philippine competition and about 4,500 points behind the opponent just ahead of the tournament.
Notably, Korean soccer will not attend Asian club tournaments this year. If Vietnamese clubs play steadily in the AFC Champions League 2021 (Viettel) and the AFC Cup 2021 (Hanoi FC and Saigon FC), then Vietnamese soccer is more likely to win the fifth place in Korean soccer. In 2019, Hanoi FC participated in the AFC Cup East Asia Regional Final. Binh Duong also participated in the Southeast Asia regional final. Thanks to that, the V-League has 10,752 points!
If this season, the representatives of the V-League Hanoi FC and Saigon FC play well in the AFC Cup, in addition to Viettel has a good classification in the AFC Champions League group stage, the V-League score, of course, you can add up to 11,000 to 15,000 points.
The current V-League is just 4,500 points behind North Korea. In the context of North Korea being stationary because it does not play the Asian Cup, the possibility of the V-League racking up points large enough to knock Korea out of fifth place is feasible.
Why is fifth place in East Asia ranking so significant? Because based on the qualification score of the national championships of Asian countries, the AFC will decide the number of participants of the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup 2023-2024 from each respective country. For countries with the championship ranked fifth in the East Asian ranking in 2021, that country, according to AFC regulations, may have 1 representative to attend the group stage and 2 representatives for the play-off of the AFC Champions League 2023.
If you win the fifth place in Korean soccer, Vietnamese soccer will automatically win 1 ticket to the group stage and 2 tickets to play the AFC Champions League. In the event of a play-off failure, the Vietnamese teams will go on to play in the AFC Cup.
The objective conditions are in place, pending the representatives of Vietnam. How will Viettel, Hanoi FC and Saigon FC fight in the 2021 Asian tournaments for Vietnamese football to have 3 spots for the AFC Champions League after two years?
