Three Candidates for the VFF Chair, but the Finance Seat Is Where the Money Flows

On 21 October, the candidate list for the tenth term of the Vietnam Football Federation was published. One page, thirteen names, and one number that held my attention longer than any other: six. Six candidates for the vice-chairmanship in charge of finance and sponsorship mobilisation — double the number of people running for the chair. While the whole football public looks at the three-way race at the top, the ballot that will set V.League's growth rate sits on a lower line of the same page.

The gap between the two milestones is worth recording: nominations closed on 19 October, the list was published on 21 October. Forty-eight hours. Enough time to filter, to arrange, and enough time for a few names not to appear.

I have followed Italian football long enough to know that at any federation, the day the list is published matters more than the day of the vote. The vote is ritual. The list is a power map.

Term IX closes, the term X list opens

The VFF is closing term IX (2026–2026) and entering term X (2026–2030). The congress is scheduled for January 2027. Between those two points lie about fourteen months — long enough for a candidate to build a coalition, and long enough for a candidate to lose a seat before the congress opens.

Three names contest the chair: Tran Quoc Tuan, the incumbent who led the VFF through term IX; Nguyen Duc Thuy — known in football circles as bau Thuy — born in 2026, entering the federation's leadership structure for the first time, with a construction and banking background; and Nguyen Xuan Vu, the incumbent vice-chairman for communications and foreign affairs.

The power structure beneath the chair is the part worth reading. The professional affairs vice-chair has three candidates: Tran Huy Duc, a VFF executive committee member in term IX; Tran Quoc Tuan; and Tran Anh Tu, the incumbent VFF vice-chairman who is also chairman of the Vietnam Professional Football joint-stock company (VPF), the body that operates V.League. The finance and sponsorship vice-chair has six candidates, among them Nguyen Duc Thuy, Vu Quoc Khanh — LPBank's chief executive — Nguyen Trung Kien, a finance vice-chairman back in term IV, and Le Van Thanh, chairman of Dong Luc company. The communications and foreign affairs seat has one candidate: Nguyen Xuan Vu.

Before the list becomes official there is one more gate: review by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. It is the least discussed control point, and the one that carries a de facto veto.

Read the structure, not the slogans

Tran Quoc Tuan appearing in both races — chair and professional affairs — is the most important technical detail on the entire list. An incumbent confident of the vote rarely needs a fallback ballot. Preparing two doors into the standing committee suggests the insiders read the race as tighter than public statements admit.

Nguyen Duc Thuy does the same from the opposite side: he stands for both the chair and the finance seat. It is a rational move for a first-time entrant to the federation structure — if the top seat is lost, there is still a standing committee seat at the decision table. A contract has three truths: the seller's, the buyer's, and the one held by whoever holds the pen. Here the pen belongs to congress delegates — and both major candidates are drafting two versions.

Ownership structure is where the real unwinding begins. LPBank is currently the main sponsor of V.League. Nguyen Duc Thuy is a candidate for chairman and a candidate for the finance seat. Vu Quoc Khanh — LPBank's chief executive — is also on the finance list. In other words, one stream of banking capital appears in three places: league sponsor, candidate for the top seat, and candidate for the seat that controls the budget.

In corporate governance that structure has a name: conflict of interest. In Vietnamese football it has no name yet, because there is no disclosure rule. When the stadium is empty, we find out who actually pays for the football. And when the payer sits at the table approving budgets, the price of the next broadcast deal stops being set by the market.

Six candidates for one finance seat is a two-way signal. On one hand, the seat is judged high-leverage — whoever controls the sponsorship flow controls the operating rhythm of the entire league system. On the other, an unusually crowded field may reflect dissatisfaction with the sponsorship performance of the outgoing term. Both readings lead to the same conclusion: term X will be measured in revenue, not medals.

The professional seat carries a detail few noticed: Tran Anh Tu holds both the VFF vice-chairmanship and the VPF chairmanship. If he wins the professional affairs seat, authority over national-team technical direction and authority over the operation of the professional league sit in a single chain of command. For a federation restructuring its calendar and its naturalisation policy, that is a concentration of power worth recording — not judging.

The reverse angle: “private capital versus the institution” is the wrong frame

Most of the discourse around this list is built on the axis of private capital challenging the institution. That frame reads neatly but misses two things.

First, Nguyen Xuan Vu — described as the institutional candidate — is in fact the only candidate without an opponent. His communications and foreign affairs seat was settled before the congress convenes. In a race called tight, that is the only outcome already determined. If you want the person certain to hold a seat, the answer is neither Tran Quoc Tuan nor bau Thuy.

Second, the incumbent registering for two seats dilutes the stable-institution frame itself. A stable institution does not need a fallback ballot. What this list exposes is internal uncertainty, not a clean contest between two governance models.

And there is a larger blind spot: no candidate has published a platform. Nobody has spoken about the share of broadcast revenue distributed to clubs, about the youth development budget, about club licensing standards. An election without platforms is an election about people — and Vietnamese football has enough experience to know the cost of choosing people instead of policies.

What to watch over the next fourteen months

Three variables will shape term X more than the vote itself. First, the review by the two ministries — if one name is removed, the whole coalition structure must be rebuilt. Second, the LPBank sponsorship of V.League: renewal, restructuring, or reworded terms will reveal how banking capital is pricing Vietnamese football. Third, whether the list published on 21 October is still intact in January 2027.

A three-minute call can kill a three-month negotiation — and at federation level, that call usually happens in a room with no minute-taker.

The list published on 21 October says nothing by itself. The order of names, the number of candidates per seat and the names that are absent are the part worth reading — numbers do not lie, but whoever presents the numbers always has a motive. Fourteen months is enough time for an election to become a negotiation. And in a negotiation, what gets divided is not the seats, but the right to price the money flowing into V.League from 2027 onward.