V-League transfers: the obsession with 'undisclosed'

HANOI – At 3pm at Hang Day Stadium, while my younger colleagues crowded around a Hanoi FC sporting director asking about a Brazilian striker about to sign, I stood aside and counted how many times he repeated the phrase: “We’ll announce it soon.” The mid-season 2026/26 V-League transfer window is running on the language I hate most: polished silence. I once had a truth carved by my own hand, until Mbappe shattered it. This time, however, if clubs keep hiding numbers, it is not me but themselves that they will break. For years, V-League clubs have announced signings with “fee undisclosed” or just “a two-year contract.” In Europe, I would read financial reports and check DNCG salary compliance. Here, financial silence has become part of the brand. But behind that silence lies a deeper problem: without public data, transfers depend on agents, highlight clips and the instincts of club owners. Watching matches at Go Dau and Cam Pha over the past two seasons, I saw a recurring pattern: clubs sign a 30+ Brazilian striker who shines in the first three games, then disappears with injuries. The stats say he failed, but medical data reveals the actual cause: a sudden increase in training load after a long period away. I am not claiming Vietnamese football lacks heart. The 2026 ASEAN Cup victory and Nguyen Xuan Son’s rise showed real progress. But Xuan Son's own case highlights the opacity of the transfer system. He arrived in 2026 as a young Brazilian, yet it took years before his true value was recognized. I may be overly critical about V-League’s “undisclosed” culture. Some argue that publishing precise wages could create dressing-room jealousy. But that excuse collapses when clubs use public funds to pay salaries hidden from the fans who pay taxes. I have spent 25 years in journalism. I have never seen a football environment where hiding information has become such a beautiful norm. When a journalist asks about transfer fees, they are told it is “internal information.” But football is not a state secret. When a club signs a player with the public's money, the public has the right to know. In this piece, I suggest a practical request: publish fees, contract lengths, basic bonuses and medical results as a standard of civility. This will make the market more efficient, protect clubs from dishonest agents and allow journalists to report accurately. As for me, I will keep asking.