A challenge during the Quảng Nam vs LPBank HAGL match on April 4. After a week of thrilling matches, the V-League will disappear for another month. VNA/VNS Photo Lê Lâm

Anh Đức

The V-League returns for two weeks... and then it gets paused again.

This might be strange for expats who are new to Vietnamese football, but for local fans, this is not new.

Việt Nam's top football league has a completely jagged schedule, and although officials moved the league's start to autumn instead of the usual spring to match international football's transfer windows, the practice of rescheduling match weeks for non-FIFA tournament days still remains.

This latest pause is due to the Việt Nam U23 team competing in the 2024 U23 Asian Cup, a youth tournament, which will last for almost a month.

The U23 Asian Cup is not insignificant. It acts as a qualifier to the 2024 Olympics. It is a continental tournament in which Việt Nam just six years ago stunned the world by advancing into the final. And it might be the tournament that rekindles the football hopes of the whole nation, after a year of disappointment.

But to pause the national leagues for a month, just two weeks after it was paused earlier for the World Cup qualifiers, is very illogical, and many coaches have raised their voices in opposition of this scheduling plan.

On the sport science side of the debate, after a long break, the league would have to reschedule the remaining matches so that the league ends in July as planned. Players would sometimes have to deal with a match density of two matches per week, which could lead to "serious injury risks", according to LPBank Hoàng Anh Gia Lai FC coach Vũ Tiến Thành.

Furthermore, as the next season of the league is due to start in August, only a month of summer break for the players is not enough for recovery.

Not many players in the provisional U23 squad are regular V-League starters for teams, so their absence is not detrimental and the league can go on without them. So why the pause?

The pause not only creates frustration for league coaches, but could decrease the excitement of fans. It could also hurt teams financially, as rescheduled matches can only happen on weekdays, which would draw fewer spectators than weekend matches.

"The national teams should really rethink where they get the players from," said Thành, "if the league goes on like this, more players will be injured, and cannot be called up when they are needed".

Recently, Indonesia also opted for a pause of their national leagues during the U23 Asian Cup, but the fan backlash led PSSI to reverse their decision and let the leagues go on.

As I have said many times before, a nation's football strength lies in the strength of their national leagues, not their national teams. These ridiculous breaks have to go if we plan to move forward and catch up with regional rivals.

One month of break equals one less month in international transfer activity, a possible heap of injuries and perhaps a giant loss in revenue for the league.

I'm not doubting national coach Hoàng Anh Tuấn's U23 squad, but are we really trading all that for a minor chance of making the Olympics?  VNS