Vietnam club to use U-19 players for top-flight league to ‘clean’ football

The changes are also meant to attract more fans to HAGL's stadium and earn the club a better profit from football.

HAGL will play in Vietnam’s top-flight V-League in 2015 with a new young team, whose players are all trainees from the first seven-year course of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai – Arsenal JMG football academy. The players were recruited into the academy in 2007 by experienced trainers from British Premier League side Arsenal.

Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of the academy, said he wants to ‘clean’ football by ‘cleaning’ his team first.

Duc was referring to complacency and suspected match fixing by star players that have haunted Vietnamese football for years.

He ended contracts with 17 footballers, who will be replaced by his U-19 men, regardless of the fact that many of the 17 are members of the senior or the U-23 national teams.

He explained, “I don’t deny the talents of the 17 players but now is the time for me to create thorough changes for my team.

“My new U-19 players are young but they are always playing football with a strong thirst for winning through fantastic and fair-play performances.”

“I am willing to take risks by using these young players, including relegation [in exchange for good and fair play football],” he added.

HAGL can save the transfer fees for the 17 players at the start of each season and use it for foreign training trips for young players, Duc said.

The U-19 players have gained trust from supporters after many exciting matches in recent years. Fans packed the stands during the three recent friendly games in which HAGL played with Can Tho, Khanh Hoa and Phu Yen this month.

This has never been seen before in Vietnam except in 2003 and 2004 when HAGL had the service of three stars from Thailand – Tawan, Dusit and Kiatisak.

HAGL won the V-League titles in 2003 and 2004.

HAGL tickets selling like hot cakes

Last week, HAGL started selling year-round tickets for the A1 and A2 stands at Pleiku Stadium at the price of VND1 million (US$48) a year.

Five hundred and seventy out of the total 900 VIP seats in the stands have been sold out. Many of the buyers come from Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Lat and Kon Tum, said Tran Van Minh – deputy director of the HAGL Sports Company, which manages the club.

“We are hoping that HAGL will not need to sell tickets in retail before a match,” Minh said.

The 2015 V-League will be organized in three stages with two breaks, starting on January 4 and ending on September 20.

The league will pause from February 15 to April 12 for Vietnamese national team members to take part in the qualifiers of the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship in Malaysia from March 23 to 31.

The other interval is from May 3 to June 28 to facilitate the Vietnamese national team to compete in the 28th SEA Games in Singapore.