According to research, from V.League 2008 to 2017, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) in collaboration with the Vietnam Sports Hospital has established a working group to implement health checks, including ranking Doping and testing section for players before competition.
Accordingly, some players were randomly selected to take urine samples. From there, it will be determined whether the player uses banned substances, including narcotics or not.
In each team, at least 2 players are selected by lottery. That means, if V.League has 14 teams and each season has 2 tests at the beginning and return, there will be about 50 samples in a season to test.
According to M.D. Nguyen Van Phu – Head of VFF Sports Medicine Department, during the period from 2008 to 2017, there was no case at V.League testing positive for addictive substances.
Players competing in V.League 2023-2024. Photo: Minh Dan
However, doping testing for V.League players has been interrupted from 2018 until now, due to changes in organization and especially the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.
It was not until this year, at the Conference to deploy the organization of the 2024 – 2025 national professional football tournaments, that this content was raised by the VFF Board of Directors, the tournament organizing committee and the Sports Medicine Department of the National Football League. VFF is also assigned the task of continuing to carry out inspection work.
In fact, there are two issues that will affect the doping testing of players in the V.League. That is the cost and time of testing.
According to doctor Nguyen Van Phu, if doping testing procedures are followed correctly such as SEA Games, ASIAD, World Cup qualifiers…, the cost for 1 test sample will be about 6-8 million VND. This number is 3-4 times higher if compared with the basic testing procedures related to some banned substances that were previously performed.
As for the timing of testing, player testing needs to be done at any time, including playing or non-playing time (which is essential) and must be increased at a higher density. .
That is, a player registered to play in a Vietnamese professional football tournament under the management system of VFF, VFF has the right to convene for inspection at any time. That will ensure accuracy in whether or not Vietnamese professional players use doping, banned substances or drugs. Of course, in addition to tightening doping testing at V.League, we ourselves Players also need a sense of career. Saying no to banned substances is the way for them to go long and sustainably in king sports.