V-League champs win 4 Billion

Binh Duong celebrate their 3rd V-League championship success

Becamex Binh Duong became champions of the Vietnam League at the weekend with a game to go, to become the first team to claim three V-League championships. They might also claim the National Cup with a final against Hai Phong in two weeks time. Binh Duong is in the southeast of the country, immediately above Ho Chi Minh City, and their success this season, they finished 8th last term, has been built on a solid defensive unit that has conceded just 22 goals in 23 matches and a team where goals come from all quarters. The average attendance across the V-League this season has been a little over 7,600. Binh Duong will be heading to Hanoi at the end of October to join Phnom Penh Crown in the Toyota Mekong Club Championship, which opens up a mouth-watering proposition. As champions of the V-League, they will collect prize money of US$188,000 (or 4 Billion dong), which is light years in front of the paltry US$15,000 Crown received for winning the Metfone Cambodian League. In fact the C-League and its neighbours in Laos, where champions HAGL Attapeu won the title last week and took home just US$12,500, fall way behind the prize money on offer in the rest of the Southeast Asian top divisions. In Singapore the champions will get a winners cheque for at least US$200,000, the Thai Premier League champions will get even more, upwards of US$300,000, while the Malaysian champs get a little under US$100,000. Big money thanks to cash flowing in from a flotilla of sponsors and backers. The Cambodian League has a long way to play catch-up as far as the monetary benefits of winning the championship are concerned.