Pham Ngoc Vien,general director of the Vietnam Professional Football Company (VPF) hopes this year's season, which kicked off on January 4,will be one for the record books for both the team and fans.

On the occasion of the new Lunar Year Vien sat down with a VOV reporter to share his hopes for the upcoming season and what it means to both the fans and team.

Following are key excerpts from the interview.

What in your opinion were the strengths and weaknesses of last season?



{keywords}




Mr. Vien: 2014 was an important transitional year for Vietnamese football teams. We collaborated with the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to build a standard list featuring criterions such as professional skills, financial capacity  facilities and legal bases for clubs.

This is the first time all football clubs attending the V-League 2015 were granted a license based on the above criterions.

Football fans have scored spectacular goals in first matches of V-league 2015. The number of spectators coming to stadiums increased to average 8,000 viewers per match with enhanced security.

 The V-League 2015 has kicked off with positive signals, what do you expect from this season?

Mr. Vien: We hope that each matche of the new season will be a “festival” in localities.  Stadiums are always crowded especially those in Quang Ninh or Hai Phong.

This season, V-League clubs have intensified their efforts to lure more fans,  and provide an inspiration for their players.

Some clubs have issued free ticket or sent players to training centres for exchange matches. The VPF has for the first time spent US$50 million supporting each group. We are set to vote the best fan club every month with a cash prize of VND20 million ( more than US$960) to enlist support from fans.

Along with security work, do you think that we should focus on raising awareness of football players to prevent negative phenomena?

Mr. Vien: That’s right. Working groups are set up to to introduce football players, team managers and coaches to professional football regulations.

Apart  from improving quality of the tournament, footballers need to raise their educational awareness to ensure a fairVietnamese football.

Besides HAGL, Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA), Hanoi T&T and Viettel are also seen as one of the good training centres.  However, other clubs still lack infrastructure facilities and expenses for footballer training.

VOV