Three Candidates for VFF Chairman: When Banking Money Enters the Boardroom

On October 21, the list of candidates for the VFF Executive Committee for the 10th term (2026–2030) was published. The Chairman seat has three names: Tran Quoc Tuan, Nguyen Duc Thuy, and Nguyen Xuan Vu. But what made me sit up was not the number three — it was a detail on the second page of the list: LPBank, the main sponsor of the V-League, is linked to one of those three candidates. I have followed Vietnamese football since 2026, when I was a reporter for Bong Da Newspaper and a contributor to The Thao The Gioi Newspaper in Madrid. Twenty-seven years of observation have taught me one thing: federation elections are never just about elections. They are redrawn maps of money flow. And this map has a new line. Among the three candidates, Tran Quoc Tuan is the incumbent Chairman, who led the VFF through term IX (2026–2026). Nguyen Xuan Vu is the standing Vice Chairman for Communications and Foreign Affairs, and in that category he is the sole candidate — a seat that is effectively secured. Nguyen Duc Thuy, known as bau Thuy, is a newcomer from construction and banking, entering federation-level elections for the first time. What stands out is that both Tuan and Thuy have also registered for additional Vice Chairman portfolios. Tuan is running for Vice Chairman for Professional Affairs, where he faces Tran Huy Duc and Tran Anh Tu — the current Chairman of the VPF board. Thuy is running for Vice Chairman for Finance and Sponsorship Mobilization, a category with six candidates, including Vu Quoc Khanh, CEO of LPBank. An incumbent Chairman registering for two seats. A newcomer registering for two seats. And a main league sponsor with a representative running for the finance seat. Three separate facts, but placed side by side, they form a structure. Numbers don't lie, but those who can read them always know how to make others believe the opposite. Here, the numbers are the candidate structure. The Finance and Sponsorship Mobilization seat has six contenders — the most crowded of all categories. The Communications and Foreign Affairs seat has one. That gap is not random. It reflects a bare truth: the seat that controls money flow is valued higher than the seat that controls image. I have followed VFF elections since term VI. Never before have I seen a main V-League sponsor have a representative sitting at the same table as a Chairman candidate. LPBank sponsors the V-League. Vu Quoc Khanh, LPBank CEO, is running for Vice Chairman for Finance. Nguyen Duc Thuy, linked to LPBank, is running for Chairman. Three roles, one ecosystem. If Thuy wins, LPBank is simultaneously the league's biggest sponsor, has a person in the federation leadership, and has a voice in the finance seat. That is no longer sponsorship. That is structural power. When everyone looks at the giants, I have seen the Viking laughing quietly. Here, the Vikings are the V-League clubs. They have no seat on the board. They have no voice in the election. But they are the ones directly affected by every financial decision the VFF makes. If LPBank expands sponsorship, clubs benefit in the short term. If LPBank withdraws or restructures, they lose. And they have no vote for the person who decides that. There is a point I must self-argue before anyone else does. Conversely, one could argue that corporate participation in federation leadership is a step toward professionalization. Vietnamese football is too used to state-linked leadership, lacking market thinking. A Chairman with a business background could bring financial efficiency, greater transparency, and better commercial connections. Looking at developed federations, many leaders come from the private sector. That argument has merit. But it ignores an operational detail: conflicts of interest do not disappear when people call them professionalization. They just shift from one form to another. The question is not whether business should participate. The question is whether the federation has a mechanism to disclose conflicts of interest. And this article does not mention any such mechanism. Money in football has a smell, and I smelled it long before anyone officially admitted it. This time the smell is of a financial ecosystem arranging itself into position. Six candidates for the Finance seat, including a bank CEO and the chairman of a construction company — Le Van Thanh of Dong Luc. Two sectors, banking and construction, converging on the football federation's leadership. This is not coincidence. This is money looking for a place in the decision-making machine. There is another detail few notice. Nguyen Trung Kien, a candidate for Vice Chairman for Finance, is noted as Vice Chairman of term IV. Term IV, not IX. That means a figure from an older era is returning. In an election where the top two candidates are either new or incumbent, the appearance of someone from term IV suggests the current leadership needs institutional memory. Or needs a vote. Football stopped in 2026, I lost money but gained a foundational lesson about cash flow. That lesson: when an organization does not publish its financial balance sheet, any analysis of it is guesswork. The VFF does not publish revenue, does not publish cost structure, does not publish sponsorship contract values. We know LPBank is the main V-League sponsor, but not the number. We know there are six candidates for the Finance seat, but not what specific plans any of them have. That is the biggest blind spot of this entire election. The crowd is data, and I always read it backwards. The crowd is looking at three Chairman names. I am looking at six Finance names. Because in a sports federation, the person who controls money flow controls more than the person in the highest chair. The Chairman can be the spokesperson. The Vice Chairman for Finance is the one who signs contracts. There is one more layer: the approval process. The candidate list must pass through the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. This is the real control gate. A candidate with legal or reputational issues can be filtered out before the congress. The nomination deadline is October 19, the list published October 21 — two days. That two-day gap could be administrative procedure, or it could be time for internal negotiation over which names to disclose. I have no evidence, but my experience tracking congresses tells me two days is too short for administrative processing, and too long for nothing to happen. From VCS to the World Cup, I have learned one truth: whoever holds the data holds the game. At the VFF, financial data is not public. That is why this election is harder to analyze than a match. In football, you have xG, PPDA, possession. In federation elections, you only have a list and speculation. And speculation, however grounded, is still speculation. The Viking does not need a map. They just need someone reckless enough to point the wrong way. V-League clubs are in the Viking position. They have no map of the league's financial future. They do not know who will control the Finance seat. They do not know how long LPBank will sponsor, or on what terms. And they have no right to choose the person pointing the way. They only have the right to wait. The congress is scheduled for January 2027. From now until then is more than a year. A year long enough for candidates to campaign, negotiate, and possibly change the list. A year also long enough for clubs to prepare for the worst-case scenario: the main sponsor changes, or the main sponsor takes power. Both scenarios directly affect their budgets. I am not saying Thuy will win or lose. I am not saying LPBank will withdraw or expand. I am saying that the current structure — a main sponsor with a representative running for the finance seat, a Chairman candidate linked to that sponsor, and six candidates for one money-controlling seat — is a structure that needs scrutiny, not just coverage. A verifiable prediction: if the January 2027 congress takes place without any conflict-of-interest disclosure mechanism being enacted beforehand, then the VFF has missed the most important transparency opportunity of the term. And if bau Thuy wins the Chairman or Finance seat, watch the V-League sponsorship contract over the next 12 months. How it is renewed, adjusted, or expanded will tell you who really controls the money flow of Vietnamese football. The final question is not who will sit in the Chairman's chair. The question is: now that banking money is in the boardroom, who will audit the books?