Van Quyet's sentence was not reduced for pushing the referee.

The appeals board decided to uphold the five-match suspension and VND15 million fine for the midfielder of Hanoi T&T.

Van Quyet admitted he was wrong to react too strongly to the referee. Photo: ND.

“Maintain the penalty for player Nguyen Van Quyet in Decision No. 102/QD-LBĐVN dated March 14 of the Disciplinary Board of the Vietnam Football Federation: A fine of fifteen million VND and suspension from the next five matches in the 2016 Vietnamese professional football tournaments due to violating Clause 1, Article 39 “Acts of physical abuse”, the Complaints Resolution Board of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) announced yesterday, April 5.

At the end of the match between Khanh Hoa and Hanoi T&T in the fourth round of V-League 2016 on March 12, Van Quyet kicked the ball and hit the opponent's defender's hand in the penalty area, but referee Cong Khanh did not award a penalty. Frustrated, the midfielder born in 1991 rushed forward to protest, pushing the referee down.

Immediately, VFF decided to remove Van Quyet from the list of Vietnam team for the match against Taiwan and Iraq in the second qualifying round of the 2018 World Cup - Asia region. In addition, the Disciplinary Board also imposed a fine of 15 million VND and a five-match suspension on the midfielder of Hanoi T&T.

On March 21, Hanoi T&T Club and Van Quyet submitted a request for a reduced sentence. However, the Appeals Board decided to keep the penalty as it is.

According to VNE