Vietnam football return to packed house

Article posted by Coliseum, July 17^th, 2020

Image: VNA

A humongous crowd turned up – 73,000 spectators – to attend V.League 1’s match last week in Vietnam.

This is quite a different scenario from football leagues world over who are playing out their seasons behind closed doors while the top league in Vietnam is pulling crowds by the horde.

V.League 1 is the top professional football league in Vietnam, controlled by the Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company. It is contested by 14 clubs who play each other on a home and away basis.

The league which got postponed in February due to the global coronavirus outbreak, returned to full house in June.

The Vietnam Football Federation said that last week’s ninth round of games surpassed the previous sixth-round record of 66,000 fans.

Over 400,000 spectators have attended the first nine rounds of V.League 1 this season, up 33.3 per cent year-on-year.

Standing in stark contrast to other professional European and Asian football leagues, the V.League 1 returned to the pitch with no bar on entry of fans to stadiums.

So far, Vietnam has reported no fatalities due to coronavirus and less than 400 confirmed cases, and has won praise for its aggressive coronavirus testing and a mass, centralized quarantine program.

After tasting success in arresting the deadly COVID-19 pandemic which still has the rest of the world in its throes, it was announced recently that Vietnam could be in line to host the country’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix in late November.

The Vietnam Grand Prix which was originally scheduled to take place in Hanoi on April 5 was postponed because of the global coronavirus outbreak.

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