HCMC Women's FC overcame hurdles on the field to reach a continental cup semi, but now its players faces hurdles in getting their deserved prize money. Photo courtesy of the AFC.

Anh Đức

In November last year, HCMC Women’s FC stunned the continent by reaching the semi‑finals of the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League. In an emotional rollercoaster at Thống Nhất Stadium, the girls in red pulled off a remarkable 5-4 victory despite being 1-4 down with fifteen minutes left to take a Vietnamese women's football club to their first-ever continental semi.

Eight months later, the same players are still waiting for their share of the tournament prize fund. Glory, it seems, is easier to win than the cash that comes with it.

According to Lao Động, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has transferred nearly VNĐ 9 billion (US$350,000) to HCMC Women’s FC. The money, competition bonuses, plus travel subsidies landed in the club’s account weeks ago, yet the players in the squad have not received anything. Several players confided that they had expected their first installment before the new Women’s National Championship kicked off. Instead, they are living on modest domestic salaries while the club and city authorities negotiate how much each stakeholder should keep.

On paper, the delay is procedural. The club is owned by Hồ Chí Minh City’s Sports Department, which must liaise with the city treasury to release funds. Officials argue that every public‑sector đồng requires rubber‑stamp audits, but the players counter that bills and rent wait for no stamp.

The image of Vietnamese women's football has always been associated with players' hardships, with overcoming prejudices. When compared to men's football, the number of accolades of the women's national team outshines the men, a reality once described by VNA's famous sportswriter Trương Anh Ngọc as "They are the forgotten heroines, often disregarded by the public and the sponsors."

This is HCMC Women's FC's first foray into a continental football tournament. One can bring up inexperience in handling such an amount of prize fund for the first time, but to delay it for almost a year is disappointingly irresponsible.

Men’s V.League clubs, backed by sponsors or private owners, can wire win bonuses on the team bus. Women’s teams, however, have no financial backing or sponsors outside of local sports departments and have to navigate layers of bureaucracy. By the time the money reaches the dressing room, exchange rates have shifted and morale has dipped.

A gap in communication between the department and players would create distrust, leading the players to voice their opinion to other outlets, such as the press. Club officials insist the AFC funds will be disbursed “soon” and that each player will receive a fair share once taxes and logistics are settled. Players hear promises but no timelines. The longer the silence, the louder the locker room rumours about percentages and deductions.

There are, however, glimmers of hope. Thể Thao & Văn Hóa reports that the city has fast‑tracked paperwork after media scrutiny and expects to pay bonuses within weeks. The same article notes discussions about setting aside a fixed percentage of future international prize money directly to players, bypassing administrative bottlenecks, which, in my opinion, is something that should have been discussed way earlier.

Vietnamese women's football reached the World Cup, had a club that became one of Asia's top four women's teams, all in the space of three years. The lives and careers of star players such as Huỳnh Như, Nguyễn Thị Thanh Nhã and Hoàng Thị Loan have far exceeded what their predecessors on the national team have done. However, the business of women's football in Việt Nam is not sustainable, and should the next generation of players not keep up, the aforementioned success could risk becoming a one-hit wonder.

The players have proven that they can play fairly and evenly against Asia's best, and it's now up to administrators to do the same, so that the desire and passion for football can be spread to Vietnamese girls, who aspire to become the next heroines of football. VNS