Vietnamese referee: Who gives me confidence?

When this article was published, the personnel of the Referee Board of the VFF term VIII had not yet been decided. In addition to the candidate for Deputy of the Referee Board of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) - Duong Van Hien, some clubs had introduced former FIFA referee Vo Minh Tri and referee supervisor Doan Phu Tan to run for the position of Head of the Referee Board term VIII. These faces are not too unfamiliar to the audience, players, and coaching staff of the football teams.

Old wine and old bottles

Over the past 7 years, Vietnamese referees and referee models have been like "ants climbing banyan branches".In 2011, the VFF Arbitration Board was established to replace the National Arbitration Council, with Mr. Nguyen Van Mui as Chairman at that time. The Head of the Arbitration Board was Mr. Duong Vu Lam.

Golden Whistle Duong Manh Hung shared that there were about 150/230 matches where people suggested "fixing bets". Photo: To Minh

In 2013, Mr. Duong Vu Lam lost his position as Head of the Referee Board, and Mr. Nguyen Van Mui was appointed to replace him. In August 2016, the VFF Executive Committee voted to retain or remove Mr. Nguyen Van Mui from his position as Head of the Referee Board. Mr. Duc stood up and said that Mr. Mui should resign, but with 16/21 votes (with 2 members absent), he agreed to retain the position of Head of the Board for Mr. Mui.

But 1 year later, Mr. Nguyen Van Mui lost the right to assign referees since round 11 of V.League. Mr. Duong Van Hien, Deputy Head of the Referee Board, was assigned this responsibility. But recently, Mr. Duong Van Hien was again dismissed by VPF from his referee supervision duties after 7 rounds.

The cycle of referees Mui - Lam, Mui - Hien with the eternal song "referees are human so they can still make mistakes", then "FIFA regulations on referee discipline cannot be made public" exist along with "ghost whistles" causing referee scandals every year.

Insider

Mr. Duong Nghiep Khoi - former Deputy General Secretary of VFF, Head of the Organizing Committee of Vietnam Professional Tournaments, recently published the autobiography "For a Star". This is the second autobiography written by a football official, before that, the book "The ball rolls in my life" by Mr. Ngo Tu Ha, former Head of the Organizing Committee of Professional Tournaments, former Vice President of VFF. He devoted chapter 2: "The King of the Football Field Goes to Jail: How I Feel Sorry?" to talk about the big case.

Mr. Duong Nghiep Khoi - former Deputy General Secretary of VFF, Head of the Organizing Committee of Vietnam Professional Tournaments is the author of the autobiography "For a Star". Photo: AT

In 2005, from a negative referee's message, Mr. Duong Nghiep Khoi discovered that the police got involved, causing more than 40 referees to be called for questioning and a series of "kings of the field" to be arrested. He shared that after he and his supervisor Dang Quang Duong discovered the negative referee's message, revealing the black line, the two agreed to only handle it internally, but then another person in VFF hid the information, choosing the time to provide it to the police to "make a name for himself", with the intention of continuing to be elected for the upcoming V term. It turns out that it's not that VFF officials don't know, it's just that they say it and say it when it's beneficial for them!

Former Golden Whistle Duong Manh Hung did not hesitate to recount that:“Tipping referees is very normal. It has been going on for many years. To be honest, in the more than 230 matches in my career as a referee, it is a bit excessive but it must have been around 150 matches that were involved.”

For a long time, people have been saying that the income is low and referees are prone to doing wrong things. Now the compensation for the main referee has increased to 8 million VND/match, the table referee and assistant referees 5 million VND, which means the income is 35-40 million VND/month, but it still sounds "misleading". How can we make the audience believe? A seemingly easy question turns out to be difficult!