Thể Công period
On 23 September 1954, according to the appointment of the Director of the General Department of Politics at that time, General Nguyen Chi Thanh, đoàn công tác Thể dục Thể thao Quân đội (Thể Công) was established. Thể Công is short for Thể dục Thể thao Công tác Đội (Physical Education and Sports Team Work) and was managed by Ministry of Defence. [13]
The first Thể Công team include 23 people of the cadre from The Army Officer College No1 and was divided into three teams: 11 football, 5 basketball and 6 volleyball players. In addition, all three teams also have a special reserve player, Ly Duc Kim, who knows how to play football, both basketball and volleyball, and has the ability to be a nurse and good logistics. Kim also has the above support functions. [14]
The first main lineup of The Cong football team include: Lê Nhâm; Nguyễn Văn Hiếu; Phạm Ngọc Quế; Nguyễn Thiêm; Ngô Xuân Quýnh; Phạm Mạnh Soạn; Trương Vinh Thăng; Nguyễn Bá Khánh; Nguyễn Văn Bưởi (captain); Nguyễn Thông (player-coach); Vũ Tâm (as Phạm Vinh). Beside, Nguyen Van Thanh (as Tí Bồ ) was joined later, was a famous player of the first Vietnamese footballers generation in the 1930s to 1950s period.
More than a month later, on October 25, in the first football match held since the liberation of Hanoi capital at Hang Day Stadium, The Cong had the first match in its history against Tran Hung Dao University team, including players from the capital's working class. The team won with a score of 1–0 with the only goal of the match being scored in the 30th second by the striker captain Nguyen Van Buoi.
In 1955, Vietnam's first football tournament was held in Hai Phong with the name Hoà Bình League (precursor of V.League 1), Thể Công was participated with two teams A and B. Both teams won championships of two A and B classes.
In 1956, for the first time, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam national football team was convened for international duty. At the age of 38, Ti Bo was still called to the national team along with nine other The Cong players to participate in his first tour in China. He became one of the first players of the Vietnamese team and the oldest Vietnamese national player ever. [15]
During the following years, Thể Công won the champions in 1956 and 1958. At that time, Công An Hải Phòng and Công An Hà Nội has been their main and traditional rival in Northern Vietnam football. Three clubs played are also the founding members in the highest Vietnamese system league in the mid-1950s and became the Big 3 clubs in the early Vietnam football period. In 1950s and 1960s, Công An Hải Phòng was far more successful, winning ten championships, including four consecutively from 1965 to 1968, making the club became North Vietnam's record champion. Thể Công took over the title more than six years later in 1976, when they won their tenth championship in 1970 and also their last nation league trophy. The duel between Thể Công and Công An Hải Phòng was referred to as the Northern Derby, but the Hanoi Derby with Công An Hà Nội was more attention because they are always counter the Red Tornado by good defense system, who reached the champions twice in 1962 and 1964.
1969–2000: Golden decade and dominance in the league
Since the 1969s to 1979s, The Cong had always dominated in national league with 13 championships in the North Vietnam Football Championship, including nine consecutive titles from 1971 to 1979. During that time, the typical generation of Thể Công players were Nguyễn Thế Anh (Ba Đẻn), Nguyễn Cao Cường, Quản Trọng Hùng, Vương Tiến Dũng, Nguyễn Trọng Giáp, Vũ Mạnh Hải,... with the majority being young players who went to long-term training in North Korea in 1967 [16] and when they returned home, they were the most outstanding and typical players in the country. [17] [18]
After the country was unified and introduced had the new National Championship (the predecessor of the V.League 1), Thể Công remained one of the strongest football club in Vietnam, winning 5 national titles during the 1980s and 1990s. Thể Công players have always been the core of the national team and contributed many players in the golden generation of Vietnamese football such as goalkeeper Trần Tiến Anh, Đỗ Mạnh Dũng, Nguyễn Mạnh Cường, and Nguyễn Hồng Sơn, Trương Việt Hoàng, Nguyễn Đức Thắng, Phạm Như Thuần, Triệu Quang Hà, Đặng Phương Nam, Vũ Công Tuyền... Thể Công was one of the longest standing teams in the V.League until the team was relegated in 2004. .
At that times, Công An Hà Nội was still a main rivals have been the clubs who put up the strongest fight against its national dominance. Matches with CAHN was more than a local derby with many classic wins, draws and losses.
In 2004, exactly 50 years after its foundation, Thể Công football club finished V-League at 11th place (out of 12) and was relegated to the lower division. The team performed poorly partly due to the policy of not recruiting foreign soldiers, in contrast to all other teams at that time. In the following season, the club changed its name to The Cong Viettel (Viettel is the Army Electronics and Telecommunication Corporation) and is partially managed by this unit. However, many comments suggested that the club should return to its old name.
On January 19, 2007, the club finally gained the right to be promoted back to V-League after winning over Tay Ninh 5–3. Immediately thereafter, the official team name was reversed back to Thể Công.
2009–2010: The end and transfer
On 22 September 2009 (before the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Thể Công) the Ministry of Defence changed Thể Công's name to Viettel. In November 2009, the Ministry of Defence decided to expropriate the "Thể Công" brand and transfer all management of football club from the General Political Department of the Vietnam People's Army to Viettel Group. On 7 November 2009, under an agreement with the leadership of Thanh Hóa province, Viettel Group transferred the participation slot of Viettel FC to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thanh Hóa Province. After acquiring Viettel’s slot, the Thanh Hóa FC was renamed to "Viettel–Thanh Hóa FC". However, two months after, the club changed its name to "Lam Sơn Thanh Hóa FC" as Viettel sold its V.League playing slot to Thanh Hóa for 80 billion VND, retaining only its reserve team, which competed in the 2010 Vietnamese National Football First League. [19] At the end of the 2010 season, Viettel also sold their First League slot to the T&T Youth Football Training Centre, with the team renamed "Hà Nội FC" the predecessor of what later became Sài Gòn FC. [20]
On 23 September 2011, during the 57th anniversary of the establishment of the club, hundreds of officials, former players, and fans of all generations who were once members of Thể Công decided to launch a campaign to collect 1 million signatures across the country to petition the Ministry of Defense to regain the title Thể Công. However, Viettel Telecom Corporation was not interested in this reception. Facing the risk of being dissolved, the acting director of the Viettel Training Center Nguyễn Thanh Hải had asked the leaders of Viettel Telecom Corporation to allow the maintenance of the football academy and pledged to bring results in a year. In the 2010 football season, the academy's youth teams reached the final round of the youth tournaments. In the following year, the team's youth categories won 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze Medal in youth tournaments, officially gaining the right to exist. In 2012, Viettel re-entered the Vietnamese football system from the Third Division. The team placed first in their group and promoted to the Second Division. [21]
