The General Department of Sports and Physical Training has requested the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to revise its professional football regulations to restrict the number of foreign players at professional tournaments and tighten controls over doping.

The VFF has also been asked to take stricter punishments against players who use violence or are found using banned substances. Meanwhile, doping checks will be applied to all players during the season.

The restriction of foreign players is aimed to cut costs for clubs and offer a more even playing field for local young players. This will be applied from next year’s season, instead of 2014 as planned earlier. Some clubs have already intended to stop hiring foreign players or at least use foreign players of a certain standard to mitigate costs next season.

Currently, salary and bonuses for foreign players account for 40% of club expenses, Deputy Head of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training and VFF Vice Chairman Pham Van Tuan said.

Under the revised football regulations, compulsory doping checks will be applied for all players during the 2013 season for the first time. In previous seasons, the organising board used to test players at random. The move follows rumours that Captain of Song Lam Nghe An, Huy Hoang was suspected to have used drugs.

The General Department of Sports and Physical Training added that, after 2012 season, local professional football clubs would continue facing financial difficulties, and they needed to save costs.

The department has also asked VFF to adjust the professional football regulations for submission to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The VFF said it the revisions will be carefully discussed at a meeting of 28 clubs on November 3.

General Director of Vietnam Professional Football Company Pham Ngoc Vien was cited by Lao Dong Newspaper as saying that each V-League club would be allowed to register three foreign players for the 2013 season with the number restricted to just two for each First Division club.