On its 55th anniversary, The Cong became Viettel football club.

Thach Bao Khanh, a star of The Cong club, which is the Viettel club now.

The Cong, which was formerly the Military football club, is among the oldest football teams in Vietnam.

In 55 years of existence, it has won five national championships in 1981-1982, 1982-1983, 1987, 1990, 1998 footballs seasons, one Super Cup in 1999 and the First Division in 2007.

However, since the V-League was established, The Cong has not performed well. In 2004, they even dropped out of the V-League before returning in 2007.

The Cong aimed high in 2009 and set their sights on the V-League championship– spending a record 75 billion dong in the process. However they still ended up bottom of the league.

The failure embarrassed the Ministry of Defence who decided to sever ties with “The Cong” and handed it over to telecommunications company Viettel. Viettel had been the club’s sponsor since 2004.

On September 28, the club’s managing director Ho Tri Liem stated the club would in future be known as Viettel Football Club.

In addition, Viettel has sacked coach Le Thuy Hai with assistant coach Nguyen Manh Cuong becoming acting chief coach. The squad currently has 24 members.

PV