Vietnam football league ranks poor fifth in Southeast Asia

The V-League had 19,715 points to rank 22nd in Asia and behind Thailand (8th), the Philippines (12th), Singapore (16th), and Malaysia (17th) in Southeast Asia.

This follows unimpressive performances by V-League clubs in international tournaments.

Since 2017 Vietnam has not had a single team playing in the finals of the biggest continental club competition, the AFC Champions League.

Its teams also played poorly in the AFC Cup for weaker teams, with none qualifying from the group stage since 2015. The best performance so far has been by Binh Duong who made it to the semifinals in 2009.

In the 2019 season Vietnam has two representatives in the AFC Cup. In the most recent matches both scored convincing wins against Myanmarese opposition with Becamex Binh Duong thrashing Shan United 6-0 and Hanoi FC beating Yangon United 5-2.

If the clubs go far, the V-League’s ranking will improve and Vietnamese teams will get direct entry into the finals of the AFC Champions League.

Thailand has had direct entries into the AFC Champions League since 2012. Muangthong United and Buriram United even qualified from their groups in 2017 and 2018.

The AFC Club Competitions Ranking is based on the results of teams participating in the last four years of the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup and is used to allocate the number of entries from each country to these events.

According to the latest rankings, China surpassed Qatar to become the top Asian league with a score of 100,000.

In 2017 Shanghai SIPG reached the semifinals while Tianjin Quanjian made it to the quarterfinals of the 2018 event.

Korea ranked third and Iran fourth. Heavyweight Japan is only ranked fifth but its Kashima Antlers are the reigning AFC Champions League winners.