V-League and notable mistakes from refereeing

It is worth mentioning that in just the last 2 rounds (rounds 5 and 6), there were 3 situations considered to be fouls in the same sensitive position but there were 2 different ways of handling them, causing different consequences by the referee.

The first situation in round 5, the match between T.Binh Dinh and HAGL, when goalkeeper Tuyen Quang fouled Van Toan outside the penalty area, the referee gave him a yellow card and it was the second yellow card, equivalent to a red card, forcing him to leave the field.

A similar situation was the foul by goalkeeper Duc Cuong on Quach Tan in the match between Hong Linh Ha Tinh and B.Binh Duong in round 6. The referee gave Duc Cuong a yellow card and gave the home team a direct free kick, leading to Van Duc's opening goal.

In this match, SLNA also suffered a loss of force when Tran Dinh Hoang could not participate due to receiving a red card in the match against Ho Chi Minh City Club. Ho Van Cuong will most likely be arranged to play from the start. Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

The third situation, the foul position is very similar to the two situations where the referee gave a yellow card mentioned above, but here there is a different development, which needs to be noted. That is in round 6, when Dinh Hoang of SLNA fouled Bruno of TP.HCM outside the penalty area (the referee later gave TP.HCM a direct free kick as a specific proof) but the referee gave Dinh Hoang a red card, with the reason that although not stated, everyone understood that the opponent could have scored if not illegally prevented.

This is completely true, but the main thing is that if we review the two similar situations above, the referee only gave a yellow card, it seems that the perception and actions of the referees are clearly not the same and the damage will of course fall on the teams that are punished as severely asSLNA.

Also in the last 2 rounds, there were 2 details considered serious errors by the referees and they were handled equally seriously. That was the match in round 5 between host Viettel and Hong Linh Ha Tinh. In a situation where the ball was passed down to a Viettel striker who was clearly offside, the linesman did not keep up with the situation or intentionally ignored it, and did not raise his flag to notify the main referee. Then there was a situation where the striker kicked the ball over the goal and was cleared, but the main referee did not recognize the goal for Viettel. Two serious errors in a row in the same moment by the referees immediately caused public outrage. If the goal for Viettel was not recognized because the striker had previously received and kicked the ball in an offside position, the ball should have been stopped and Hong Linh Ha Tinh would have been awarded an offside penalty, but in reality that did not happen. The ball was cleared behind the goal line (unfortunately, there was no Goal line technology) and continued in play as if nothing had happened, showing a lack of transparency and clarity here?

Xuan Nam's hand goal in the match between Saigon and Binh Dinh was still recognized by the referee team. Photo: Internet

The situation that caused a disadvantage for Saigon FC in the match in round 6 against T. Binh Dinh was when Van Nam recreated a ghost goal by scoring with his hand in an aerial battle, the home team's defenders raised their hands in protest but the referee still recognized it? Fortunately, coach Phung Thanh Phuong and his students played well to find the equalizer later.

It is not and cannot be said that the referee's mistakes are due to subjectivity and bias, nor do we expect the refereeing work to be perfect in every V-League match, because mistakes and surprises will always be an indispensable part of football. It is also possible to share the difficulties that are never the same, no lesson is the same in the task of managing professional football matches to help those who hold the scales gradually move towards objectivity, fairness, reaching the highest possible level. The introduction of tools to assist referees such as VAR, goal line, offside detection... is gradually being widely used in the world, but in the region and Vietnam, it is still groping, "lowland", and needs to be urgently implemented to improve the quality of each match and the whole tournament. Only then can we hope to gradually eliminate the regrettable errors and mistakes as mentioned above./.