V.League needs to learn from Thai League

Clubs were forced to separate themselves from sponsoring organizations and register as independents.

Clubs must change to meet the criteria, as well as bring fans to the field. Photo: FAT

Big changes happened during that season. Thailand Premier League changed its name to Thai Premier League. A series of clubs that do not meet the new regulations have to find ways (renaming, merging, separating from the sponsor organization …) to ensure standards.

In 2017, FAT decided to change the name of Thai Premier League to Thai League 1. Since its establishment in 1996, Thai Premier League relies on local sponsorship. Rebranding initiatives to promote identity and elevate the league globally.

The drastic change in Thai football did not lead to the dissolution of the teams. In contrast, up to this point, throughout the land of the Golden Temple, there are more than 100 professional clubs, not to mention the semi-professional and amateur teams.

Also because of the determination to change the appearance, Thai clubs invest heavily in facilities to bring the best experience to the fans when coming to the field.

It is that synchronization that helps the club’s image to be more beautiful, easier to attract quality foreign players. It must also be said that the policy towards Brazilian players has contributed to improving the technical quality of the internal factors.

The policy of recruiting foreign soldiers also helps Thai football. Photo: FAT

As the tournament has developed and created attraction, it is not surprising that the Thai League television rights have a huge value. They are in an 8-year contract (2021-2028) with Zense media company with the value of nearly 400 million USD (regarding 9,000 billion VND).

On the scale of copyright that FPT and VPF recently cooperated with – 300 billion VND / 5 seasons, an average of 60 billion VND / season, is too small.

Of course, if this is considered the first step of the V.League, a drastic change like the way the Thai people do is really necessary. In it, one of the other important things is that it is almost impossible for Thai clubs to change their names following sponsors.

That is, even sponsoring cooperation, partners must understand that traditional values, identity elements, and regions are things that cannot be changed.

Can Vietnamese football and V.League ever do that?