Ho Chi Minh City

The Saigon Port Football Club and the Saigon Port Corporation are the two predecessors of the Ho Chi Minh City Football Club. The Saigon Port Company, formerly known as the Saigon Port Football Club, was formally created on November 1, 1975.

The Saigon Port Corporation's officials claimed at the end of 2008 that they no longer had the means to support the football squad. Due to the fact that they only had one primary sponsor, the Vietnam Steel Company, the club's leadership decided to alter the team's name in order to operate on a professional model. The name Ho Chi Minh City Football Club was adopted with the permission of the club's management unit, the Ho Chi Minh City Football Company Ltd, and the Ho Chi Minh City Football Federation, with a 15 billion Vietnamese dong investment for the team.

Because of their devotion to the heritage connected with the name Saigon Port, the club's supporters have expressed disappointment and resistance to the decision to alter the name. Yet, the club's objective was to become a major football club in Ho Chi Minh City, as well as to promote the acquisition of government and commercial aid. The club officially changed its name to Ho Chi Minh City Football Club on January 22, 2009, with the Vietnam Steel Corporation serving as the team's primary sponsor.

The supporters were vehemently opposed to the name change. The whole Fans Association Executive Committee resigned, and the Saigon Port Football Supporters Association dissolved, generating problems for the team in its first season under the new name. They were relegated to Vietnamese Football League Second Division after finishing at the 13th place in the 2009 season. In 2012, the club finished last in the Vietnamese First League. After only one season at the Vietnamese Second League, Ho Chi Minh returned to the First League in 2015. With the ambition to return to top fight, Ho Chi Minh City received big investments and successfully gained a promotion to the V.League 1 after winning the 2016 V.League 2.

Following returning to the V.League 1 in 2017, the team focused more on drawing spectators to the stadium by listening to supporters' criticism and renovating the stadium, stands, and so on. As a consequence, the club's reputation among supporters progressively improved. After that, the Ho Chi Minh City Football Club Fans Association was formed. The squad finished 12th in the league standings in 2017.

Before the 2021 season, the club's management made changes to the team's personnel with the goal of winning the V.League 2021 championship. Alexandré Pölking, the former coach of Bangkok United, was recruited by the management with a 1-year contract and a salary of 30,000 USD/month. In December 2020, Ho Chi Minh City Club successfully recruited Vietnamese-American midfielder Lee Nguyen with a 1-year contract. In round 5 of phase 1 of 2021 V.League 1, the club lost 0-3 to Hanoi in a match in which Ngo Hoang Thinh received a very heavy penalty from the VFF after a collision that broke Do Hung Dung's leg.