The Vietnamese National Football First League (Vietnamese: Giải bóng đá hạng Nhất quốc gia Việt Nam), known simply as the V.League 2 and for sponsorship purposes as Gold Star V.League 2, is the second-highest of the Vietnamese football league system after V.League 1, and is currently contested by 12 clubs. The current holders are SHB Da Nang, who won the 2023-24 edition.
Starting in the 2023–24 season, the league comprises 11 teams. Over the course of a season, which runs annually from October to the following July,[1] each team plays twice against the others in the league, once at 'home' and once 'away', resulting in each team competing in 22 games in total. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss. The teams are ranked in the league table by points gained, then goal difference, then goals scored, and then their head-to-head record for that season (including away goals record). If two or more teams finish the season equal in all these respects, then teams are separated by alphabetical order, unless a promotion, relegation, or play-off place is at stake, when the teams are separated by a play-off game, though this improbable situation has never arisen in all the years the rule has existed.[citation needed]
At the end of the season, the top team is promoted to the V.League 1 and the bottom two teams are relegated to Second Division. The second placed team in V.League 2 plays a promotion/relegation play-off against the third lowest team in V.League 1.[2]
Seasons 2000 to 2019: Teams played a double round-robin format to earn points.[3] The champion team was promoted to V.League 1. The bottom teams (1 or 2 teams depending on the year) were relegated to the National Second Division.[4] This format was used again in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the last seasons to be held in a calendar year.[5]
In the 2020 season, after the first round of the round-robin, the top 6 teams played a single round-robin to find the champion, and the remaining 6 teams played a single round-robin to find the team to be relegated.[6][7] The 2021 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8][9][10][11] From the 2023–24 season onwards, the teams will play a double round-robin format over two years, from the autumn of the previous year to the summer of the following year.[12][13][14]
On 1 November 2022, FPT Group-owned FPT Play will be the new domestic broadcaster for Vietnamese Professional Football Leagues competitions (V.League 1, V.League 2 and Vietnamese Cup) effectively from 2023 until 2027.[15]
The prize money for the 2023–24 V.League 2:
The following 12 clubs will compete in the V.League 2 during the 2023–24 season.
