The top-tier football league in Vietnam, V-League, is the number one in Southeast Asia in terms of attraction and quality of competition, said Indonesia’s head coach Alfred Riedl.
The Austrian-born man, who has 14 years of working as coaches in Vietnam, Laos, and Indonesia, said footballers in Vietnam are paid higher salary and bonus than other nations in the region.
“It has drawn qualified players from Thailand, Singapore or Indonesia to enlist for V-League in Vietnam,” he said.
“Payment for domestic players in Vietnam is also higher than in Indonesia. That helps motivate players to strive to demonstrate themselves on the pitch to deserve the payment.”
The 62-year-old coach agreed that violence, match fixing and quality of referees have degraded football development but these problems are universal, not unique to Vietnam.
“In Indonesia, violence is even more serious than in Vietnam and referees seem unable to control it,” Riedl said.
Coach Riedl had three spells of training the Vietnamese national team, from 1998 – 2001, 2003-04, and 2005-07. He later came to Laos in 2009 and worked with Indonesia from 2010.
