Vietnamese Football in 2026: Building the Foundation from the Mass Movement

HANOI, DECEMBER 2026 — The year 2026 closed with notable milestones for Vietnamese sport in the first years after national reunification. Physical training and sports were placed within a single national framework with two parallel tasks: expanding the mass movement and strengthening the pool of elite athletes. Football, the sport with the widest reach, remained at the centre of the country's sporting life. THE MASS MOVEMENT AS THE FOUNDATION Throughout 2026, localities, factories, schools and armed forces units stepped up morning exercise, football, volleyball and athletics. Clay pitches inside housing blocks, offices and enterprises became the places where young talent was discovered. It was from this broad movement that the athlete pool of industries and provinces was constantly replenished, creating a long-term resource for representative teams. LEADING CLUBS IN BOTH HALVES OF THE COUNTRY In the north, clubs belonging to the armed forces and to economic sectors — The Cong, Hanoi Police, Hai Quan, Duong Sat — kept up regular training, friendly matches and industry-level competitions. Figures long associated with The Cong's colours, such as goalkeeper Nguyen The My and midfielder Le Thuy Hai, remained the technical backbone for younger squads. In the south, the football movement in Saigon and several provinces was gradually restored, and Cang Sai Gon emerged as one of the standout collectives. Meetings between teams from the two halves of the country in 2026 began to create a shared playing field, although the number of matches remained limited and mostly friendly in nature. YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND FACILITIES Alongside the positive aspects, 2026 still exposed many difficulties: a shortage of pitches, basic equipment, tight budgets and a coaching workforce that did not yet meet demand. Youth development relied mainly on schools, production sectors and military units. These were the issues set out for the following years, and they also explain why Vietnamese football could not yet organise a well-structured league system during this period. LOOKING AHEAD TO 2026 Entering 2026, the sports sector set out to keep strengthening the mass movement, raise coaching quality and gradually build a more unified competition system. For football, forming a nationwide championship bringing together strong teams from both halves of the country was seen as a long-term goal. It was not until 2026 that this goal became reality, when the national championship under the A1 format officially kicked off. Editor's note: This report reconstructs the context of Vietnamese sport in 2026 from general historical material. Detailed statistics for the 2026 season have not been fully verified and should not be cited as official data.