V.League referee story: Strict punishment to limit 'tough' play

(Baonghean) - The ball of V.League 2017 has not yet rolled, but on December 20, VFF "fired" 4 referees: Ha Anh Chien, Phung Dinh Dung, Dinh Van Dung and Ngo Manh Cuong. Due to the violations committed in the 2016 season, these referees will not be assigned to work in V.League 2017, and even referee Ha Anh Chien will not be allowed to officiate in matches in the Vietnamese professional football system.

Referee work in V.League 2017 will be tightened

VFF Permanent Vice President Tran Quoc Tuan said that entering the 2017 season, all referees and assistant referees must master the latest regulations in the competition rules issued by FIFA and the International Law Council, ensuring that matches are conducted strictly and in accordance with the spirit of the law, creating awareness of law compliance for players. Therefore, the upcoming training sessions for supervisors and referees will be longer than in previous years to disseminate the new FIFA rules. This is considered a strong move by VFF to tighten the team of "black shirt kings" on the field before the new season.

Remember, in the 2016 season, referee Ha Anh Chien was the one who "imagined" the 11m penalty in the match between SLNA - Thanh Hoa, causing the Nghe team to receive an unfair loss. Talking to a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh - Member of the VFF Executive Committee, General Director, Chairman of SLNA Football Club said: "Before each season, VFF assigns the Referee Board to organize referee training on the law and working methods, each match has a referee supervisor to report on the refereeing work of each match. In addition, there is also the supervision of tens of thousands of fans and the media following the matches, so the referee's misconduct is difficult to hide.

The organizing committee always adheres to the right thing, whoever does wrong must be strictly handled. If there is ideological violation or professional weakness, they will not be used again. VFF always wants to have a quality, decent, honest tournament, so they handle it strictly from the beginning of the tournament to set an example."

In the past, every season, V.League was noisy about referees "blowing the whistle", favoritism, there were matches when players chased the referee around the field, spectators booed, threw water bottles at the referee... causing the image of V.League to be distorted and ugly. The quality of referees is also one of the reasons why V.League lacks professionalism.

Many experts believe that the referees in V.League are “loose” in their handling, so our players play “roughly”, rough tackles become a habit, which leads to the fact that when the players compete internationally, they are easily “carded”. Typically, the Vietnam team at the AFF Cup 2016 was the team that was judged to play the most rough, although they were eliminated in the semi-finals, they had the highest number of cards!

Hopefully, with the VFF's firm action right from the start of the 2017 season, the professional quality as well as the sense of responsibility of the "kings of the field" in the V.League will be raised, creating conditions for the teams to compete with peace of mind and the Organizing Committee will not have to rely on foreign referees to control sensitive matches like in the 2016 season.

Duc Dung