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The infamous banner displayed during the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar. Photo soha.vn

​Anh Đức

During the darkest days of men's football in Việt Nam, when the U23 team was eliminated in the 2013 SEA Games group stage, a banner was flown which read: "We will switch to watch women's football and wait for the U19s".

Eleven years from that day, it seemed that the fans were just all talk and no walk.

Women's football and men's football in Việt Nam has had perhaps opposite fortunes, despite the fact that the achievements of the women was better than their male counterparts.

The women's national team enjoyed their golden age in the early 2000s, while the men endured the worst decade in their history. As the men's team claimed their first regional throne in 2008, the women's team experienced a small decline, then reemerged again in the past few years.

But regionally, the men's team was never the dominant force, and struggled internationally in World Cup qualifiers. The women's team on the other hand, holds the record for most SEA Games gold medals with eight and successfully qualified for their first World Cup in 2023.

Such achievements and success must translate into immense attraction for the women's game, like the England Lionesses' EURO 2022 win, which lead to thousands watching the Women's Super League weekly, both in stadiums and on TV.

Việt Nam's women footballers can dominate their region and win countless tournaments, but the stadiums are still empty and matches are shown on lousy YouTube streams with a mere dozens of viewers.

The only time people bat an eye towards women's football here is when either the men play so emotionless or when the women's national team plays at the World Cup.

And even the organisers are not helping. A friend of mine from England, who is avid about women's football, inquired me if it's possible to purchase tickets to watch the women's football league.

I then did a research and found out that both national women's football tournaments, the National Championship and the National Cup, has no public information on where the fans could get tickets for the matches.

The only mention of tickets in the most recent regulation of the 2024 National Cup, is that teams will get a maximum of 42 invite tickets to the stadium per match.

I am confident that if the VFF starts to publicise about the tournaments, fans of women's football will definitely come, even if it's not as crowded as the men's tournaments.

The national team's captain, Huỳnh Như, once posted (and then deleted) on social media about her frustrations on the ridiculous treatment of women's football: "In tournaments we have to play from 1.30pm, warm-up from 12.45pm in a stadium with no stands. For what women's football has accomplished, I hope that fans will respect us."

The 2024 Women's National Cup will kick off from November 28, with the final held on December 13 in Mỹ Đình, Hà Nội, and I hope that the organisers, the media and the fans will give women's football the attention they truly deserve.

For myself, I will keep a close watch on the game and try to watch at least the final in person, rather than erecting lousy banners. VNS