Many female referees appear
According to the plan, the qualifying round will start from January 6 in Ho Chi Minh City with a total of 43 to 46 matches and start in Ba Ria-Vung Tau from January 12 with 7 matches. Based on this actual number, the Referee Board of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has decided to select 20 referees and assistant referees for the Ho Chi Minh City region and 8 referees and assistant referees for the Southeast region.
The new feature of the 2024 tournament is the appearance of many female referees. If in 2023, the qualifying round in Ho Chi Minh City had 4 female referees and all were assistants, including Bui Thi Huong Thao, Dang Thi Siem, Tran Thi Tra My and Nguyen Thi Nhu Thanh, the qualifying round in this tournament will have 2 main female referees and both are FIFA referees. They are referee Le Thi Ly from Ho Chi Minh City and Tran Thi Thanh from Hue. Referee Le Thi Ly is highly appreciated for her stable refereeing ability, good mentality, and has been selected by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to officiate many continental tournaments. In 2023, referee Le Thi Ly was also selected to officiate at the 31st SEA Games.
Referees Le Thi Ly and Ha Thi Phuong (right)
Referee Tran Thi Thanh was once famous in the match between Phong Phu Ha Nam and Ho Chi Minh City 1 at the 2020 National Women's Football Championship. This 27-year-old referee from Hue showed her mettle when making "sensitive" decisions such as the penalty for Ho Chi Minh City. Deputy Head of the VFF Referee Board Vo Quang Vinh assessed that Tran Thi Thanh has made great progress over the past 3 years and has increasingly asserted her position.
In addition to these two female referees, the group in Ho Chi Minh City will continue to have two more female assistants, both from Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Thi Nhu Thanh and Dang Thi Siem. In Ba Ria-Vung Tau, there will be two female referees from Hai Phong. That is FIFA referee Bui Thi Thu Trang, who has officiated several matches at the 2021 National U.19 Championship finals in Binh Duong and the 2022 U.19 qualifiers in Binh Phuoc. This girl is the only female referee from Vietnam attending the conference of referee/VAR referee candidates preparing for the 2023 Women's World Cup in Doha, Qatar. Besides, assistant referee Ha Thi Phuong is also a flag bearer at the SEA Games and has a lot of experience with top-level football.
The appearance of many leading female referees in Vietnam along with female referee supervisors, such as former FIFA referee Truong Thi Le Trinh in the student playground, will contribute to bringing freshness and excitement to the national school football festival. At the same time, this will also be a good opportunity for these girls to be able to officiate more professional men's matches in the future.
Referees Bui Thi Thu Trang (2nd from right) and Tran Thi Thanh (3rd from right) will officiate at the Ho Chi Minh City and Ba Ria-Vung Tau matches.
V-League referees present from the qualifying round
In 2023, some V-League referees will only appear from the final round of the Thanh Nien Sinh Vien tournament, such as Duong Huu Phuc and Tran Van Trong. Due to the fierce nature of the second tournament, VFF will immediately select some V-League referees from the qualifying round. The most notable name is Tran Ngoc Nho, a referee from Tien Giang who will officiate in the Ho Chi Minh City area. This is the referee who is currently officiating the national football championship and is also a VAR referee. Referee Nho has improved rapidly over the years and is highly appreciated by VFF for his ability. Although he has made a few controversial decisions and had an incident in the second division play-off round in June 2022, this young referee is considered to have the courage, scientific refereeing methods, and is especially decisive with rough fouls.
Some referees from the first and second division will also be present to officiate at the match in Ho Chi Minh City, such as Nguyen Minh Tien (Gia Lai), Vo Hong Thang (Ho Chi Minh City), Ngo Rach Tha (Can Tho), Phung Le Quy Hoai (Dong Nai), Le Tuong Duy (Dong Thap). Mr. Dang Thanh Ha, Head of the VFF Referee Board said: "The advantage for the Vietnam Youth Student Football Tournament is that the qualifying round takes place when the V-League and the first division are temporarily suspended so that the national team can focus on the Asian Cup finals. Therefore, the Referee Board has arranged for some referees from the V-League, first division or those who are being trained to work in the upcoming professional tournaments in Vietnam to participate in the student football tournament. Moreover, we also assess the fierce nature of the qualifying round of the Youth Student Tournament, so we will arrange good referees to ensure the most fair, accurate and objective management".
V-League Referee Tran Ngoc Nho
The presence of many experienced and FIFA-level referees and supervisors at the Vietnam Youth Student Football Tournament shows that experts have assessed the extremely necessary significance of this important playground for school football, as well as in discovering talents from school for Vietnamese football, contributing to enriching and improving the quality of Vietnam's grassroots tournaments. The referees will be trained from January 2 to January 5 and are all very eager to be present at the Vietnam Youth Student Football Tournament. For them, being able to officiate student matches is also an opportunity to improve their courage and mentality as referees and flag bearers.
A southern referee who was present at the U.21 finals in Thanh Hoa in 2023 said that officiating student football matches is no different from officiating matches in the V-League or first division. Although the professional level may not be as good, in return the enthusiasm, aspiration of youth and the eagerness and spirit of the teams, supported by school fans, create a heated atmosphere, requiring referees to focus, supervise and be strict with each ball phase, just as thrilling as in professional tournaments.
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