VietNamNet Bridge - To fit the situation of football clubs, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and the Vietnam Professional Football JSC (VPF) have decided to extend the deadline for registration for the 2013 V-League and the First Division Tournament for one month.

Many important changes of the Professional Football Regulations were adopted at the conference to prepare for the 2013 football season, held by VFF and VPF in Hanoi early this week.

Firstly, the proposal to postpone the deadline for 2013 V-League and the First Division Tournament registration until December 8 was approved, with a majority vote of representatives of FCs.

According to the initial plan, at this conference, the number of football teams participating in the V-League and the First Division Tournament would be finalized, to prepare for the draw. However, as being notified by Mr. Tran Duy Ly, chief organizer of V-League, only 12/14 teams had registered for the V-League and the First Division Tournament, respectively. Therefore, the deadline for registration has been extended for one more month.

The draw ceremony is scheduled on December 15 and the first games will take place in mid January 2013.

VFF and VFP Vice President Le Hung Dung said: "The organizers are waiting for clubs to register for the V-League and the First Division Tournament. However, it is more important to ensure that these teams can maintain operations until the end of the tournament. If a team quits after one or two games, because of financial problems, what would the organizers do?”

Dung also said that under his understanding, in the upcoming football season, only about 10 clubs have enough financial resources to participate in all games of the V-League.

Mr. Tran Duy Ly said: "After clubs register, the VPF is responsible for evaluating their financial capacity and other criteria to see whether they are able to go to the end of the tournament or not, before holding the draw."

Related to the number of foreign players, the new regulation stipulates that each V-League team can register three foreign players and use all of them at a time. The number is two for the clubs at the First Division Tournament, the National Cup and the National Super Cup.

However, this provision was put in doubt for its feasibility because FCs can easily dodge it by recruiting naturalized players.

This is the wonder of the Chair of Thanh Hoa FC, Nguyen Van De. "In my opinion, naturalized and foreign players should be in the same group,” he suggested.

However, Mr. Pham Ngoc Vien said: "Naturalized players have full citizenship rights of Vietnamese citizens under the law. Therefore, the amendments in the new regulations must respect the law. "

According to the new regulation, each team must have at least three Vietnamese players of less than 23 years old who are registered in the list of 20 attendees per game.

The minimal salary for players in V-League is set at VND10 million ($500) per month. It is VND6 million for players of the First Division Tournament.

In the difficult economic situation, the regulation on the minimum operating funds of FCs has been changed. Accordingly, a V-League team must prove to have VND35 billion ($1.7 million) to participate in the 2013 football season (VND40 billion last year). This figure is VND20 billion ($1 million) (VND25 billion last year) for the teams at the First Division Tournament. This change received absolute support of the representatives of FCs at the conference.

S. Tung