V-League referees and shaken confidence

In a world of deep expertise, if each person has a different rhythm like that, then who can fans, players, and coaches trust in this fiercely competitive environment?

The world has long applied technology to assist referees, of course the main referees, to minimize mistakes and errors, in order to make the most correct decisions. Of course, that does not mean that mistakes and errors are completely reduced, because VAR referees are also human, they once did not draw a line to determine the offside position in a match, and even missed the situation where the ball touched the hand before leading to a goal...

Countless missed situations and goals being taken away in matches involving Arsenal or Brighton in the Premier League are specific examples. And the main referee also makes mistakes and errors when not being supported the best, not making the most accurate decisions possible. Not only in the V-League like the case of Mr. Hong Vu in the recent Nam Dinh - Khanh Hoa match, but also in the world's top tournaments, there are also cases of "seeing chickens as national heroes", hasty and subjective decisions... by many referees in black, leading to many noisy public opinions as mentioned above.

The fundamental difference is that in advanced tournaments, who is right, who is wrong, who deserves to be permanently or temporarily suspended is known and understood clearly and thoroughly. If the referee is wrong, the tournament organizers are responsible for handling it, but anyone who insults the referee will be severely punished. Because of many painful lessons, it is easy to see that in the world, there are very few cases of coaches criticizing referees in public or anywhere. All of the above objective and honest behaviors are aimed at protecting the trust of the audience, those who have the most power because they have spent money to buy seats in the stadium to enjoy football on weekends, in the middle of the week, throughout their lives.

While our V-League 1 and 2 have ever had an action to protect the audience who buy tickets to the stadium? Is it because the V-League has never attracted a large audience to the stadium to seek the endless joy of sports that people do not need to care about this "heavenly" matter? If they do not care, there will still be this and that matter related to the referee blowing the whistle, and after discipline, they will be assigned work. Without punishment, the coaches still have the opportunity to "fight" the referee when they have the chance... That vicious cycle continues year after year. A strong team always has the black shirt king protecting them, season after season and now we still hear others complaining and crying out to heaven. A poor team goes everywhere and is "overpowered" by the referee who blows the whistle unreasonably, but they still grit their teeth and endure it because speaking out will be more harmful. Not only in professional leagues but also in grassroots leagues, this sad story happens all the time.

The U19 group stage that is currently taking place unfortunately also has this sad incident. For example, in the 2 away/home matches between U19 Song Lam Nghe An and U19 PVF, the referees in both matches "gave" penalties to the home team PVF for extremely ridiculous things. Fortunately, the young players and the coaching staff of the away team are not unfamiliar with this daily occurrence, so they reacted moderately and tried their best to win 4 points after 2 difficult matches. The main thing is that the audience has gradually lost faith in fairness and honesty in sports. Unfortunately, it is the people in the industry who have unintentionally lost the most precious thing that they are pursuing and striving for.

Therefore, the noisy story about referees will continue to be discussed, when everything is still confusing black and white, right and wrong about the same incident like the case of Mr. Hong Vu at Thien Truong Stadium in the 5th round of V-League 1-2023 recently. Although fans know that this referee did not perform his duties in the 6th round of V-League, they cannot be satisfied with the VFF referee board's rude cover-up after an announcement that even the experts disagree with.

It is difficult to avoid mistakes, and mistakes are something everyone admits. But we cannot admit the way the referees did it, regardless of everything, to affirm that "the referee handled it right" when in fact it was blatantly wrong. That is essentially a lack of respect for the truth, a lack of respect for fans, and a loss of trust among the majority of football lovers. That loss is much greater than trying to protect a referee who blew the whistle in 2019, and now makes repeated mistakes that everyone can see./.