Eight Vietnamese football clubs eligible to participate in AFC Competitions

They are Becamex Binh Duong, SHB Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh FC, Saigon FC, Viettel, Than Quang Ninh, Quang Nam and Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

Licensing is a mandatory process for football clubs nowadays in order to take part in domestic and AFC level club competitions. According to the licensing regulation, Vietnamese clubs are required to comply with the 5 criteria, each of which has a grade A or B that determines how crucial it is to fulfill.

The criteria for Vietnamese clubs could be divided into 5 groups: Sporting, Infrastructure, Personnel and Administrative, Legal & Financial.

Since 2014, VFF has applied the club licensing regulation and utilized it as a system to evaluate the competence of the clubs to take part in either national or AFC tournaments. By joining the AFC licensing system, VFF sets an aim to guiding domestic football clubs towards a sustainable development roadmap.

The AFC Club Licensing Regulations is the basic working document incorporating the AFC minimum requirements, which should be met by clubs to participate in the AFC Champions League or AFC Cup. The system proposes quality standards and procedures by which clubs will be assessed for continual improvement.

This is also the first ever year that VFF has implemented licensing system for domestic football clubs on the portal of AFC at http://clas.afc-link.com.

Licensing is an activity that expresses professionalism integrated in the overall development of football. After 6 years of implementation, it has directed and helped clubs to meet the demand of AFC regulations. Regrettably, due to internal difficulties, some clubs misses out the criteria leading to the disqualify for AFC competitions in 2020 . This is a big loss not only for the clubs but also for Vietnam football. VFF hopes that the continuous working on licensing roadmap would be likely to create an opportunity for further development of Vietnamese clubs and Vietnam football generally.