Nghe An has 5 professional referees qualified to officiate V.League and First Division

Nghe An has 2 V.League referees and 3 First Division referees.

In this test, a total of 10 people, including 6 referees (Nguyen Trong Thu, Nguyen Trung Kien, Hoang Pham Cong Khanh, Nguyen Phuong Nam, Ta Cong Chau Hoa, Le Luu Quang) and 4 assistant referees (Le Xuan Vu, Nguyen Trung Nam, Nguyen Thanh Trung, Ha Thi Phuong) failed the test.

Nghe An referees assigned to work at V.League 2020 will include referee Nguyen Dinh Thai and referee Tran Duy Khanh. In particular, referee Nguyen Dinh Thai has just won the Bronze Whistle award for the 2019 season. Referee Tran Duy Khanh is a FIFA-qualified assistant referee.

Referee Nguyen Dinh Thai is the Bronze Whistle for the 2019 football season. Photo: VPF

The remaining Nghe An referees who officiated matches in the First Division include Nguyen Hoang Anh, Duong Viet Dung, and Nguyen Tuan Minh. These are all highly regarded referees with many years of experience in professional tournaments in the country.

Applying new rules at V.League 2020

Recently, the Asian Football Confederation - AFC applied new rules from August 2019. At that time, the Vietnam National Championship was in the middle of playing so it was not applied yet. Starting from this season, VFF will put it into practice.

For example, two of the most notable changes to the rules relate to goalkeeper kick-offs and penalty kicks. In the case of a dead ball, the goalkeeper can pass the ball to a teammate inside the penalty area instead of being forced to kick it outside the 18-yard area as before.

Regulations on penalty situations have been changed in V.League 2020. Photo: Archive

Penalty situations have also changed in terms of determining fouls. If the ball touches a legitimate part of the body and bounces into the player’s hand, there will be no foul to award. The decision will be similar to the case of the ball touching the hand while supporting the body in a falling position.

This year's tournament brings together 14 professional clubs, including: Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, SLNA, Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Binh Duong, Saigon, Da Nang, HAGL, Quang Nam, Ho Chi Minh City, Nam Dinh, Viettel, and Hong Linh Ha Tinh. According to the recent announcement of the Organizing Committee, V.League 2020 will start from March 7 and the First Division will start from March 14.

Vietnam lacks FIFA referees

According to the recently announced FIFA referee list for men's football, Vietnam has only two people left. They are Mr. Hoang Ngoc Ha and Ngo Duy Lan, of which FIFA referee Ngo Duy Lan has achieved Elite level, the highest level in the referee system.

With only 2 FIFA referees, Vietnamese football is inferior to most countries in Southeast Asia such as Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. These countries all have more than 2 FIFA referees, even Thailand has 6 male referees.

Referee Ngo Duy Lan is the highest FIFA-qualified referee in Vietnam. Photo: VFF

Laos and Cambodia each have three FIFA-qualified referees. Laos has five male and one female assistant referee who meet FIFA standards. Cambodia has no female assistant referees who meet FIFA standards, but five male assistant referees. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore each have five FIFA-qualified referees for men's football. FIFA's list of Indonesian referees does not include any female referees who meet international standards.

Thailand leads the region in 11-a-side football with 6 male referees and 2 female referees, 8 male assistant referees and 3 female assistant referees meeting international standards. In comparison, Vietnam has only 2 male referees, 3 female referees, 7 male assistants and 3 female assistants meeting FIFA standards.

Due to the limited number of FIFA referees, no referees were present at the recent 30th SEA Games or the 2020 AFC U23 Championship. In recent years, the quality of Vietnamese referees has always been a controversial issue due to some mistakes, affecting the quality of tournaments.

Referee from Nghe An won the Bronze Whistle award for the 2019 season

(Baonghean.vn) – Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thai is one of two Nghe An referees working at the V.League National Championship in recent years. At the end of the 2019 season, this referee won the "Bronze Whistle" award voted by VFF and VPF.