Bau Thuy, the VND 600-1,000 Billion Target and the Reallocation Question Facing Vietnamese Football

The nomination list published by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) for term 10 (2027-2031) puts three names in the chairmanship race: Trần Quốc Tuấn, the incumbent; Nguyễn Xuân Vũ, vice president for communications in term 9; and Nguyễn Đức Thụy, vice chairman of Sacombank's board of directors and owner of Ninh Bình FC.

The first two names belong to the familiar machinery. The third arrives from the banking side, and with him comes an action programme so detailed it reads less like a campaign speech than a budget filing. From 2027, Thụy targets VND 600-1,000 billion a year for Vietnamese football through socialisation, sponsorship, corporate partnerships, broadcasting rights, digital content and football services.

Based on my experience following V-League matches across several seasons, a mid-table club's operating cost lands around VND 60-80 billion a season. Multiply that by 14 teams and the league's running cost alone touches the floor of the plan. The VND 600-1,000 billion target is therefore not decorative. It is the financial infrastructure of a national game, and how it is allocated will decide who benefits.

Term 9 of the VFF is entering its final years. The state budget allocated to football duties is about VND 80 billion a year. Thụy wants to change both ends of the equation: multiply total resources while steadily cutting dependence on the state. The commitment is explicit — from 2027, 100 percent of VFF's operating and development costs will come from socialised funding and self-generated revenue, with no state budget.

Alongside that, the candidate wants to work with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Sports Administration to review how the VND 80 billion is distributed, prioritising sports that need extra funding, especially those capable of competing for medals at the ASIAD and the Olympics.

A monitoring mechanism is attached as a condition: all mobilised resources must be used for the stated purpose, disclosed publicly, audited and subject to oversight by VFF members. That is the point I register first, because a fundraising programme that does not say who checks the money is only a promise. The 2026 World Cup taught me one thing: hesitation is what wrecks every plan. In financial matters, though, building the audit mechanism before disbursing is the right call.

On competition structure, Thụy wants the VFF to work with VPF, the clubs and experts on expanding the V-League to 16-18 teams and the First Division to 18-20 teams. Women's football is aimed at a system of 8-10 stably operating teams, with V-League clubs encouraged to establish, link with or sponsor women's sides.

Read closely, the financial support section draws four tiers of spending. Each qualified local federation receives VND 2-3 billion a year. Each V-League club receives a VND 3 billion package per season. Each First Division club receives VND 2 billion. Each women's club receives VND 2 billion.

I rebuilt the arithmetic at current scale, assuming 14 V-League clubs, 12 First Division clubs and eight women's teams. Support for men's clubs comes to VND 42 billion in the V-League, VND 24 billion in the First Division and VND 16 billion in women's football, a total of VND 82 billion. If the expansion goes through as proposed, the club package alone rises to VND 100-114 billion per season.

The local federation line is the biggest unknown. Vietnam has 63 provincial and municipal federations. If 40-63 of them qualify, the cost lands between VND 80 billion and VND 189 billion a year. Added together, money flowing directly to the grassroots accounts for roughly VND 180-300 billion, or 30-50 percent of the VND 600 billion floor. The remainder goes to national teams, youth development, referees, staff and infrastructure.

The crux is this: the programme sets strict transparency rules for money the VFF spends, but sets no condition at all for money the VFF hands down to clubs. There is no academy standard, no requirement on the share of young players registered for matches, no sanction if the support is used to pay wages. VND 3 billion a season can be the seed of an academy, or it can be one month of a foreign striker's salary.

On personnel, the targets carry clearer timelines: at least 20 staff trained further in foreign languages, governance and professional skills from 2027; at least 5-10 Vietnamese personnel recruited, appointed or assigned to regular roles at the AFF, AFC and FIFA by 2030. For referees, the aim is deeper investment in 10-20 promising referees and assistant referees, raising the chance of appointments to major Asian matches.

I read a transfer not through the price tag but through where the player will stand in the system. A financial programme deserves the same reading: not the total raised, but the position of each spending line in the value chain of the game.

What stops me longest is the gap between VND 600 and 1,000 billion. A budget plan with a VND 400 billion band, equal to 67 percent of the floor, is really two different scenarios wrapped in one sentence. At VND 600 billion, the club support package already eats nearly half. At VND 1,000 billion, the same structure is barely over a quarter.

The second risk is structural. VND 3 billion a season for a V-League club, without conditions, quickly becomes a fixed revenue line in that club's financial plan — something no club wants to lose, and no club wants to do extra work to deserve. I have seen the same pattern in the transfer market: loans with an obligation to buy turn small clubs into finishing schools for the big ones. Unconditional grants breed a class of clubs that live off the federation's budget.

The third risk sits inside the pledge itself. Rejecting the VND 80 billion state budget is a strong statement, but it shifts the entire sponsorship-cycle risk onto the VFF. When a major sponsor walks, there is no safety net behind. And reallocating that VND 80 billion is a ministry decision, not a VFF president's — a candidate can propose it, not commit to it.

As a former player, I do not need to watch the tape to know who is running into the wrong space. Here the wrong space is the order of priorities, not the money: expanding to 16-18 teams before there are enough quality referees and compliant pitches forces the system to run faster than its real capacity. Ten to twenty priority referees is thin for a league with more matches.

In the middle of a chaotic season, a strategist needs most the calm of an outsider. That calm sits in three questions with answers due within 18 months: whether club support comes with conditions; when the first audit report of the 2027 term is published; and whether the ministry approves the reallocation of the VND 80 billion. If all three get clear answers, Vietnamese football has a financial frame to grow into. If not, we will have another handsome action programme and another season spent waiting.