The flare was extinguished as soon as it appeared on Vinh Stadium.

The flares were quickly extinguished by the task force. Photo: PV

The match between the home team SLNA and Hai Phong is the highlight match of round 9 of V.League 2022. According to the registration, 200 Hai Phong fans were allowed to be present at the stadium to watch the match. Vinh Stadium's Organizing Committee has anticipated the unwanted actions that Hai Phong fans could cause at Vinh Stadium, including lighting flares.

However, in the 67th minute of the match, when SLNA was leading coach Chu Dinh Nghiem's ​​team 2-0, suddenly 2 flares were lit in the area reserved for Hai Phong fans. Immediately, in less than 2 minutes, the authorities extinguished the fire. That timely response did not give bad elements a chance to interrupt the match. In the end, SLNA won a resounding 3-0 victory over Hai Phong Club.

Entrances and exits are strictly controlled. Photo: Xuan Thuy

Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Nghia - Deputy General Director of SLNA Club said: "After the flares were set off, the security forces and fire police responded very quickly, both putting out the fire and maintaining order in the stands of Hai Phong fans. Therefore, the match continued normally afterwards, without much impact on the professional quality of the two teams competing on the field."

The Deputy General Director of SLNA Club added: "In front of the gates, especially the gate to welcome Hai Phong fans, we have arranged forces to control and not allow prohibited objects to be brought into the stadium. However, 2 flares still got through. We still cannot investigate exactly, but I think when fans deliberately hide them (for example, hiding them on women), it is very difficult to control. Because we do not have enough modern equipment to detect prohibited objects on fans."

Mr. Nghia said: "After the match, the security forces escorted the fans out of the city safely and did not let any unfortunate incidents happen. The Vinh Stadium Organizing Committee later sent a report to the VFF. We hope that Vinh Stadium will not be fined for allowing the flares to be set off."

The flares did not affect the quality of the match much. Photo: Duc Anh

In the past, Hai Phong fans have repeatedly caused bad behavior in the V.League. On April 1, 2019, they caused a big scare at Hang Day Stadium when a large number of flares were thrown onto the field and burned in the stands when Hanoi met Hai Phong. Recently, there was a scandal when fan Tran Tien Dung spat at referee Ho Ngoc Ha in the match between Hai Phong and Binh Dinh in round 8 of V.League 2022.

I think the Organizing Committee of the National Football Championship needs to take strong actions and impose strong enough sanctions to prevent the destructive behavior of some of these dishonest fans./.

PV