Expert Vu Manh Hai: 'Disciplining Long An Club alone is not satisfactory'

Expert Vu Manh Hai said that the penalty for Long An is appropriate and hard to deny, but he also said that Long An is not the only one that has to suffer this penalty.

Long An Club received a heavy penalty from VFF after the players, coach, and club president protested against the referee.

Mr. Hai stated his opinion: “The punishment for Long An is appropriate, and we cannot defend them. However, these punishments lack fairness and transparency.

The lack of fairness and transparency lies in the fact that in a match, there were two "commanders" of the tournament, Mr. Vo Quoc Thang (Chairman of the Board of Directors of VPF Company) and Mr. Nguyen Minh Ngoc (Head of the tournament's Organizing Committee) sitting in the stands watching from beginning to end, seeing with their own eyes what happened on the field, but neither of them took any action in organizing or directing the work. Both of them let the incident happen in a very negative way. That is not fulfilling their responsibilities. If the players are punished, the leaders should also be punished."

Expert Vu Manh Hai

According to Mr. Hai, the incident at Thong Nhat Stadium was the last straw for a series of incidents that have occurred since the beginning of the season. “VFF, VPF and the tournament’s organizing committee need to seriously review and self-criticize after the incident at Thong Nhat Stadium. Letting this happen was the last straw for everything that has happened since the beginning of the season. There have been referee incidents in every round, the most serious being the incident with Omar and Hoang Vu Samson.

The Omar case showed an unsteady stance, there was no basis for the 8-match penalty, then FLC Thanh Hoa reacted and demanded to withdraw from the tournament, so it was reduced to 6 matches. The peak of the loss of trust in Vietnamese football was the situation where Hoang Vu Samson kicked Chau Ngoc Quang. Everything that happened showed frustration, justice, and rules were not respected. They handled things emotionally and according to instructions to please someone, so it was unfair," said Mr. Hai.

Mr. Hai also said that Long An players could not avoid such mistakes. However, it is necessary to reward and punish fairly and legally. According to the regulations and rules, such a penalty is not within any framework. Such a punishment is counterproductive, leading to doubts in the discipline and tournament management of VFF and VPF.

The two “commanders” who witnessed the match and were helpless in such a way were not responsible. This situation could have been prevented even though they were not allowed to go down to the field in principle. However, this was a special case, and since it was special, the people with the highest authority in the tournament had the responsibility to handle the problem. If they could not go down, they had to call or find a way to get information and help the teams and members calm down, they could not be indifferent like that. This situation was unusual, like a riot, they had the most power, so how could they make the tournament go well?

According to Thethaovanhoa