Why did Hoang Anh Gia Lai Club change its name twice in less than a year?

In the 2024-2025 season, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Club (HAGL) will change back to its old name. The mountain town football team will remove the new sponsor name attached less than a year ago.

"We had to change the team's name back to its old name due to the overlap between the tournament's main sponsor and the sponsor in the team's name. The team's academy is still called LPBank HAGL. This afternoon, we announced the change of the team's official fanpage name," said a leader of the mountain town team.

On the afternoon of October 29, HAGL announced that it would change the team's fanpage name to the old name without a sponsor. In fact, HAGL had registered the team's name to the old name before the new season took place.

The announcement reads: "The name change announcement is required by Facebook, and once HAGL has submitted the request, it must be announced on the page. We are just waiting for Facebook's approval to change the name ourselves, but we cannot determine when."

At the beginning of the 2023 season, HAGL changed its name to LPBank HAGL and just under a year later, they returned to the name HAGL that existed 20 years before.

In fact, there are conflicting opinions about LPBank sponsoring a series of V.League and First Division football teams such as HAGL, Phu Dong Ninh Binh, Tre TP Ho Chi Minh, Binh Dinh, Hai Phong, Hanoi Police Club, etc. However, this does not prove the connection between the football teams. In addition, they are also the sponsor of V.League 1 for the next 3 years.

Currently, HAGL football club is in trouble with Martin Dzilah - a foreign player who just won a lawsuit after FIFA's ruling. Martin said he did not receive $20,000 in compensation after being injured and having his contract terminated last season. FIFA asked HAGL to pay $29,000 but HAGL did not agree to pay, they were banned from transferring players until the above ruling was implemented.

In terms of expertise, HAGL performed well in the 2024/2025 season. They got 9 points and have not lost a match. Many people hope that HAGL can return to the championship race after a long time of being used to relegation.