Vietnam to announce main sponsor for top-tier football league next week

Vietnam Football Professional (VPF) – a company under the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) – has confirmed the news after Eximbank, a major Vietnamese lender, announced its withdrawal from sponsoring the competition after four years.

A Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper source said that the new sponsor, who is a well known corporation, has almost completed negotiations for the deal with the VPF after three months.

The term for the sponsorship package for the 2015 season will be either VND30 billion (US$1.44 million) or VND40 billion ($1.9 million).

The VPF is tasked with organizing football tournaments in Vietnam, including the V-League and the First Division.

Earlier, the annual sponsorship from Eximbank for the V-League was VND30 billion.

According to a source close to Tuoi Tre, the new sponsor asked for a three-year deal but the VPF wants the first deal only for the 2015 season, expected to open in January.

“This is the first time the new sponsor has worked with the VPF and the football company wants to show them the value of the V-League.

“After 2015, the VPF will welcome the corporation to sign a longer term deal if the V-League can prove its quality and attractiveness,” said the source.

As for the First Division and the Vietnam National Cup, Kien Long Bank is now one of the four most eligible sponsorship candidates.

On a different football note, the VFF will soon recruit Tanaka Koji – a Japanese manager – as technical director. Koji was the head of the organizing board of the V-League 2014.

The football governing body said it already sent a proposal on his recruitment to the VPF, waiting for its final approval.

As a technical director, Koji will be in charge of planning youth training programs for clubs in Vietnam.

He will also coordinate with Tohiya Miura, the Japanese head coach of the Vietnamese national football teams, to cover football affairs for the national squads.