CAND's Season Launch: The First Division's 'Big Spender' or a Giant Hiding Behind State Budgets?

On the morning of September 5, 2026, at the Ministry of Public Security headquarters, I stood among hundreds of journalists, cameras, and probing eyes. The season launch ceremony of Cong An Nhan Dan FC (CAND) took place in an atmosphere so solemn it was suffocating. Minister Luong Tam Quang was present, speaking about the Ministry's special attention to football. He spoke of aspirations, of tradition, of responsibility. But I heard nothing about football. I only heard an administrative plan wrapped in a sporting veneer. When I was thrown out of a press conference in Tokyo in 2026 for asking coach Moriyasu if he knew he was destroying 20 years of Japanese attacking football, I learned a lesson: the right question always outlives the one who throws you out. Today, standing in Hanoi, I have the same feeling. The whole world is praising an ambitious promotion plan. I only see a team hiding behind state budgets, and a football nation deceiving itself that money can buy philosophy. The context must be clarified from the start. CAND is not an ordinary First Division club. This is a team directly managed and invested in by the Ministry of Public Security, with political backing at the highest level. For the 2026-2027 season, they have set the goal of winning the First Division and earning promotion to the V-League. To achieve this, they have recruited a host of seasoned veterans: goalkeeper Nguyen Dinh Trieu - a former national team player, striker Le Viktor - a Vietnamese-Czech player with European experience, along with Minh Vuong, Do Phi Long, Pham Ly Duc, Pham Minh Phuc, and Thanh Nhan. Coach Nguyen Duc Thang - who won the 2026 V-League with Viettel - has been entrusted with the task. The general consensus in the media is: CAND will be promoted. No one dares to doubt it. With nearly unlimited financial resources from the police budget, with a squad full of names who have fought at the highest level, with a coach of reputation and character, everything seems predetermined. Articles praise the methodical investment, the sustainable development strategy, and the Ministry of Public Security's vision. People talk about football as a tool to boost the morale of the forces, about social responsibility, about spreading the sports movement to every corner of the country. But I have lived through 52 years of observing world football, from the harsh pitches of Argentina to the cold press rooms of Japan. I have witnessed too many teams built with money that collapsed for lack of something more important: identity. And I see in CAND a team trying to buy promotion with a budget, instead of building a sustainable philosophy. Look at the tactics Thang will almost certainly employ. I have followed his teams for years. Viettel won the 2026 V-League not with attractive attacking football, but with boring defensive solidity and maximum efficiency in set pieces. That is the philosophy of a man who believes not losing is winning. In the First Division, where most teams are weaker in quality, this style will work. CAND will control possession, will wait, will exploit opponents' mistakes, and will win by minimal margins. They don't need to be beautiful. They just need to be effective. But the question no one asks is: what happens after promotion? When CAND reaches the V-League, they will face teams of equal or superior quality. They will no longer be the only predator in the pond. Thang's pragmatic defensive style will be seriously tested. And then, people will realize that this team has no identity, no philosophy, no youth academy to build upon. They only have money. And money cannot buy sustainability. Look at the financial structure. CAND operates on a state-subsidized model. The Ministry of Public Security invests directly, not through commercial sponsorship or broadcast revenue. This creates an unfair competitive advantage in the First Division, where most clubs must fend for themselves with modest local budgets. But it also creates a dangerous dependency. If policy changes, if the Ministry shifts priorities, if a scandal erupts, CAND will collapse faster than the poorest clubs because they have no self-sustaining foundation. And don't forget the transfer of PVF-CAND to become Hung Yen FC. This is a clever administrative move: separating the youth team from the senior squad to focus the budget, while creating a new club in a province without top-flight football. But in essence, this is an internal arrangement of the Ministry of Public Security. Both clubs share the same origin, the same backing, the same management system. This raises questions about transparency and fairness in the league. Is the VFF strong enough to oversee this relationship? Is there a risk of match-fixing between two clubs with the same owner? I am not accusing anyone, but I am asking questions. And the right question always outlives the answer. Football is the only thing I know where people worship safety as a triumph. CAND is being praised for its methodical investment, its clear promotion plan, its solid backing. But I see a team avoiding risk by buying certainty. They don't dare build from youth development, don't dare take risks with young players, don't dare play attacking football that might lose 3-2 but would build an identity. They choose the safest path: buying proven veterans, playing solid defensive football, and betting that not losing is winning. I could be wrong. I have been wrong many times in my career. But I was right to bet on Cerezo Osaka during the COVID-canceled season when everyone laughed at me. I was right to point out that France won the 2026 World Cup through luck, not philosophy, when the entire Asian press praised Deschamps as a genius. And I believe I am right to see in CAND a team that will be promoted but will never become a real force in Vietnamese football. Look at history. CAHN - Hanoi Police FC - won the V-League in 2026. That was a commendable achievement. But since then, what have they done? Have they maintained their form? Have they built a successor generation? Or are they just a team built with money and reputation, gradually sinking into mediocrity? If CAND is promoted, they will join CAHN in the V-League. Two police teams in the top flight. What does that say about the development of Vietnamese football? Are we witnessing the rise of a model, or the distortion of a football nation? I have lived in Japan for over three decades. I have witnessed the J.League build from zero, not with government money but with private corporate investment and, more importantly, a methodical youth development system. Japanese clubs don't buy success. They nurture it. They accept failure in the first 5 years to build foundations for the next 20. And now, they have players abroad across Europe, a national team that competes on equal footing with football powers. CAND is going in the opposite direction. They are trying to buy the shortest path to the V-League. And when they get there, they will realize they have nothing to keep them there. No youth academy (already transferred to Hung Yen), no clear football philosophy, no generation of young players waiting for their chance. They only have an aging squad and a state budget. That is a recipe for collapse, not sustainability. Let me be clear: I am not against state investment in sports. I am not against CAND's ambition to be promoted. I am against the lack of vision, the approach of building a team with money instead of philosophy, and the way we celebrate safety as a triumph. When I was thrown out of the press conference in Tokyo, my question remained on the table. And my question today is: what happens after CAND is promoted? Who will take responsibility when this team cannot compete in the V-League? Who will answer when the state budget is wasted on a project with no future? The 2026 season was canceled, but I kept my bet on a second-division team. I was right about Cerezo Osaka. I was right about Denmark's deep run at Euro 2026 because no one wanted to play them. And I believe I am right about CAND. They will be promoted. But they will never become a real team. They will just be a giant hiding behind state budgets, a fake success story that we will pay for with the slowed development of the entire football nation. People ask why, at 68, I still write as if the world is ending. I just smile. Because I have seen too many teams like CAND in my career. Teams built with money, praised as heroes, then collapsing in silence when the money runs out. And I know that if we don't ask the right questions, if we only worship safety and budgets, we will forever be stuck in old glory. The opening match against Long An on September 11 will be a test. Not of tactics, not of technique, but of how this team handles pressure. A win will reinforce the success story. A draw or loss will immediately raise questions about whether the team is overhyped. I will watch this match with special interest, not because I care about the result, but because I want to see if CAND can show any sign of a real football identity, or if they are just a machine programmed to win by minimal margins. I will end this article with a question, not a conclusion. When CAND is promoted to the V-League, when they face teams with equal or greater resources, when they can no longer rely on state budgets to buy safety, will they have the courage to face reality? Will they be able to rebuild from the ashes of a visionless plan? Or will they become another lesson about how money cannot buy the heart and mind of a football team? I don't have the answer. But I have a question. And the right question always outlives the answer.