First Division has foreign players for the first time in 10 years

Accordingly, the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has agreed to allow foreign players to play in the 2025/26 National First Division. First Division teams are allowed to register 1 foreign player and can replace him in the middle of the season.

Thus, after exactly 10 years of absence, foreign players have just appeared in the lower leagues of Vietnamese football. Since the 2015 season, VFF has not allowed First Division teams to use foreign players, mainly due to financial problems. Some clubs with ambitions to be promoted are willing to pay a lot of money to hire foreign players.

Foreign players can play in the First Division 2025/26.

However, most of the remaining teams do not have enough financial capacity to hire foreign players. There are even many cases where First Division teams are relegated, dissolved or disappear despite successfully staying in the league. Faced with such a reality, VFF is forced to eliminate foreign players from the First Division.

In the past 10 years, whenever V.League teams faced off against First Division teams in the National Cup, a relegation play-off match, they had to accept playing without foreign players to ensure fairness. This rule is not wrong but brings certain disadvantages.

Managers all realize that the First Division will become more attractive and competitive if there are foreign players. From the players' perspective, they have more opportunities to show themselves in the hope of being noticed by a V.League team, thereby earning more income.

In addition, the First Division teams are still allowed to register 2 overseas Vietnamese players and 1 naturalized player. With their strong financial potential, PVF or Truong Tuoi Binh Phuoc can think of big investments if they cannot be promoted this season.

Mai Phuong

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/giai-hang-nhat-lan-dau-co-ngoai-binh-sau-10-nam-ar934191.html