(Dan Tri) - Thai football legend Piyapong Pue-on has spoken out to accuse the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) of arranging referees in favor of the Vietnamese team in the second leg of the 2024 AFF Cup final.
After the second leg of the 2024 AFF Cup final, Thai public opinion and press criticized Korean referee Ko Hyung Jin for being biased towards the Vietnamese team. Siam Sport pointed out three situations that favored the "Golden Dragons".
Referee Ko Hyung Jin was accused of making decisions in favor of the Vietnamese team (Photo: Huong Duong).
At the beginning of the match, player Pham Tuan Hai tackled Jonathan Khemdee with both feet but only received a yellow card. Slow motion replays showed that the Vietnamese player tackled the ball with both feet very roughly.
In the second situation, before Weerathep Pomphan received a red card, the referee saw Supachok being severely fouled by a Vietnamese player. However, instead of blowing the whistle and penalizing the opposing player, the referee let the match continue. Weerathep Pomphan must have been frustrated by that situation so he retaliated, leading to receiving a second yellow card.
In the third situation, Suphanan Bureerat was fouled in the penalty area. If you look at the slow-motion video, it is definitely a foul. But once again, VAR did not intervene and the referee also ignored the penalty for Thailand.
Many opinions on social media asked the Football Association of Thailand (FAT) to sue referee Ko Hyung Jin, but Madam Pang refused. Commenting on his YouTube channel, Thai football legend Piyapong Pue-on accused the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) of arranging referees that favored the Vietnamese team.
The Daily News quoted Mr. Piyapong Pue-on: "I think AFF should review the referee arrangement, see how it affects the match. It is impossible to arrange the referee and the coach of a team from the same country.
Expert Piyapong Pue-on said that AFF made a mistake when arranging the main referee and coach of the Vietnamese team from the same country (Photo: Huong Duong).
In the first leg, the Arab referee was fine. Whatever decision he made was acceptable. In the second leg, the main referee was Korean, and the coach of the Vietnamese team was also Korean. Let me ask, if the AFF Cup arranged a Japanese referee, who had the same nationality as coach Masatada Ishii, how would the Vietnamese team react?
In the future, I think that AFF needs to raise stricter criteria in arranging referees so that the quality of Southeast Asian football can improve."
Mr. Piyapong Pue-on is 65 years old this year. He was a teammate of Coach Park Hang Seo at Lucky-Goldstar Club (Korea). During his career, Piyapong Pue-on played as a striker. He scored 70 goals in 100 appearances for the Thai national team.
Piyapong Pue-on once ran for the position of President of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), but later he accepted to withdraw, supporting Madam Pang. Currently, the Thai football legend is a member of the executive board of the Football Association of Thailand.
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/huyen-thoai-thai-lan-to-cao-aff-bo-tri-trong-tai-co-loi-cho-tuyen-viet-nam-20250109110504517.htm
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