V-League

The V-League is the top professional football league in Vietnam. Launched in 1980, the league currently involves 14 teams. The official name V-League has been used since 2000-2001 season when the competition turned professional.

Competition format

 * The V-League season starts in February and ends in August. In each season, each club plays each of the other clubs twice, once at home and another away, for a total of 26 games.
 * Teams are ranked by total points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored.
 * Top team is qualified for AFC Champions League qualifying rounds.
 * For 2010 season, two bottom teams are relegated to the Vietnam First Division while third lowest placed team goes to play-off with the third highest placed team from Vietnam First Division.

Sponsorship

 * 2000-02: Strata Sport Marketing (Strata V-League)
 * 2003: PepsiCo (Sting V-League)
 * 2004: Kinh Do (Kinh Do V-League)
 * 2005: Tan Hiep Phat (Number One V-League)
 * 2006: Eurowindow (Eurowindow V-League)
 * 2007–10: Petro Vietnam Gas (Petro Vietnam Gas V-League)
 * 2011-13: Eximbank (Eximbank V-League)

Rules on foreign players
The number of foreign players is restricted to five per team. A team could use three foreigners on the field each game.

As 2009 statistics, about half of V-League foreign players are Brazilian and the rest come from Argentina, Nigeria, Ghana, Czech Republic, Thailand and others.

Attendance
V-League average attendance stands at around 10,000 spectators per game for some recent seasons. As of June 2010, the average attendance of V-League 2010 is 10,208.