The VFF Chairmanship: Three Names, One Gamble, and a Power Vacuum

The news that three candidates are contesting the VFF chairmanship was published on October 21, after the nomination deadline closed on October 19. That did not surprise me. What made me pause was the two-day gap between the close of nominations and the public release of the list. Two days, in a football ecosystem where every leadership race is pre-arranged, is enough time for a name to be held back, or added. I have followed VFF congresses since the early 2000s, and never before has a candidate list said so much about the nature of power in Vietnamese football. The three names: Tran Quoc Tuan, the incumbent chairman who has held the top seat since the 2026-2026 term. Nguyen Duc Thuy, a construction and banking magnate known as bau Thuy, entering the federation-level race for the first time. Nguyen Xuan Vu, a standing member of the Executive Committee who has effectively secured the Vice Chairman for Communications and Foreign Affairs seat with no opponent. Three men, three different types of power: the seat-holder, the bridge-burner, and the one waiting in the wings. But the real story is not the chairmanship. It is who will control the money and who will control the tactics. Look at the list for Vice Chairman for Finance and Sponsorship Mobilization. Six candidates. Six. Meanwhile, the Communications seat has one candidate and no contest. That is the clearest signal of where the real center of power lies in the next VFF term. Vietnamese football is entering a phase where sponsorship money is no longer a secondary revenue stream but the backbone of the entire league system. LPBank, bau Thuy's bank, is the main sponsor of the V-League. And bau Thuy, at the same time, is running for both the chairmanship and the finance vice chairmanship. One man, two seats, one funding source. I am not saying that is wrong. I am saying it is a power structure that needs to be looked at squarely. Tran Quoc Tuan is no less interesting. He is running for both the chairmanship and the Vice Chairman for Professional Affairs. Observers tend to read this move in two ways. One is overconfidence from the incumbent. The other is a carefully calculated fallback. I lean toward the second. A chairman with six years in office, who has navigated controversies over scheduling, club interests, and the national team, does not usually bet everything on a single seat. He knows that if he loses the chairmanship, the Professional Affairs seat still gives him a voice in coaching appointments and technical direction. That is not greed. That is the survival instinct of someone who has been in the game long enough. But here is where I want to break the emerging consensus. People are reading this race as a showdown between 'bau Thuy, representing private capital' and 'Tran Quoc Tuan, representing the institution.' That reading is neat, journalistic, and easy to write. But it overlooks one detail: Nguyen Xuan Vu. The man with no opponent for the Communications and Foreign Affairs seat. That seat does not need a vote. It is automatically his. And in a leadership where the chairman can be replaced but the communications vice chairman cannot, Vu is the only person guaranteed to be in the final photo, regardless of who wins. I saw pressing before everyone else — and then watched it die on the biggest stage. That lesson taught me that what decides the outcome is not the name mentioned most, but the power structure built around that name. At the VFF, that structure is being built around sponsorship money and control of technical affairs. Six candidates for the finance seat is not a sign of enthusiasm. It is a sign of a real fight. And the uncontested communications seat is a sign of a deal already done. There is one more detail I want to pause on. Tran Anh Tu, the incumbent VFF Vice Chairman, is also Chairman of the VPF board — the company that operates Vietnam's professional leagues. Tu is also on the candidate list for Vice Chairman for Professional Affairs. If Tu wins, he will hold both the federation's technical direction and the league's operating authority. That would be an unprecedented concentration of power in Vietnamese football. If Tu loses, the VPF will have a chairman without a seat in the federation's leadership. Both scenarios deserve scrutiny, and neither has been explored by the press. The bridge-burner taught me how to read the transfer market — where a promise is cheaper than a view. It is the same here. Promises of 'reform,' 'transparency,' and 'youth development' will be made repeatedly over the next three months. But what matters is not the promise. It is the seat structure. Who sits where, who controls which funding stream, who has the power to appoint whom. That structure was shaped before a single ballot is cast. Where could I be wrong? I could be overestimating LPBank's influence. It is possible that the V-League sponsorship deal was signed independently of bau Thuy's personal role, and that his sitting in the VFF chair would not change the commercial terms. It is also possible that the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism — the two bodies that vet the candidate list — will remove a name on legal or reputational grounds, and the entire race will change before the January 2027 congress. I do not rule that out. But if it happens, it only proves my point: real power is not in the ballot, but behind the closed doors before the ballot is printed. Football in 2026 did not lack matches — it lacked the smell of grass, the roar, the visible hunger. The VFF is the same now. There is no shortage of candidates. No shortage of promises. What is missing is a power structure transparent enough for fans to know who is really holding the fate of the game. Three names have emerged. But the real question is not who will win. It is, after winning, to whom will that person owe the debt of power. The meta only truly lives when someone reckless enough dares to burn down the entire analytical framework. This VFF chairmanship race needs someone willing to burn the old structure. But after burning, someone has to build the new one. And among the three names on the table, no one has yet shown they have both hands.