After nearly 25 years of becoming professional, V.League has made many important steps in building its image, developing the commercial value of the tournament as well as improving professional quality. Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) has made efforts to bring VAR technology to the country, but up to this point, the problem of refereeing has not been resolved.
Who is tarnishing the image of V.League?
Round 13 of V.League witnessed an unprecedented incident when a series of coaches reacted strongly, receiving yellow and red cards due to the referees' decisions. At Tam Ky Stadium (Quang Nam), coach Le Duc Tuan (Da Nang) received a direct red card after reacting to the referee Le Duc Thuan. In just 1 minute at Thong Nhat Stadium (HCMC), 3 yellow cards were given to coach Velizar Popov and technical director Hoang Thanh Tung (2 cards) of Thanh Hoa Club.
Mr. Le Vu Linh unjustly showed a red card to coach Popov.
At Pleiku Stadium (Gia Lai), Coach Bui Doan Quang Huy (Binh Dinh) also reacted strongly outside the field when Duong Van Khoa was fouled by a HAGL player. Notably, the referees did not blow the whistle and let HAGL attack, almost causing Binh Dinh to concede a goal at the last minute.
Similarly, Hang Day Stadium witnessed the water bottle smashing by coach Van Sy Son (Quang Nam). This coach was upset when referee Nguyen Manh Hai recognized the goal of Hanoi Police Club. He thought that the home team player committed a foul before scoring.
Reacting to referee decisions is prohibited. The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) and Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) have taken strong measures to deal with violations of this type in the past three years. However, like treating a disease in football, punishment is only a "medicine" used after the fact. The factors that fuel and nurture the disease have not been completely resolved, and have even become more serious.
Where does the habit of reacting of V.League coaches come from? Of course, in controversial decisions of referees, not all are wrong. However, when the level and frequency of mistakes are too much, the persuasiveness of the "men in black" is no longer.
All teams are haunted by the "whistle blow" and develop a habit of reacting to any unfavorable decision. Even before the match has started, the fear of referees is real. For a long time, whenever "sensitive" matches are about to take place, the question of referees has appeared in the media.
Just punishing coaches - even indiscriminately and illegally, like the way coach Popov was booked for... scolding his own players - is only effective in the beginning and quickly becomes "immune". The root of the problem lies in trust and that cannot be restored as long as referees continue to make mistakes.
V.League loses appeal because of referees?
In terms of professional quality, V.League clearly still has very attractive matches. Even in the match between Ho Chi Minh City and Dong A Thanh Hoa, if there were no mistakes from the referee, fans would have clearly witnessed a good match. The score chase between Hanoi Police and Quang Nam with a score of 4-4 is worthy of being one of the most dramatic matches in the history of the tournament.
However, after the effect of Vietnam's AFF Cup championship, the audience is still not interested in V.League. Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa lead the rankings, Hanoi Police and Hanoi FC have a top-notch star cast but the stands are still empty.
V.League matches without spectators.
VPF is a company and they need to sell their products, in this case football matches. But to sell products and get high prices, they need to improve the quality of their products and increase the prestige of their matches. VPF’s efforts are not enough when the referees continue to leave black marks with big questions.
The tournament organizers cannot control the referees, which is a problem that makes major sponsors worried.
From the football team perspective, it is not easy to find a manager who is both passionate and has potential at the present time. There is no guarantee that businesses will accompany the team for a long time if the money they have invested in "sweat and tears" can go up in smoke because of repeated wrong whistles from referees.
Now, there are teams that spend huge amounts of money, but they alone cannot replace the rival teams in the task of making up the tournament.
Preventing systematic refereeing errors is also the way VPF protects the tournament, protects the team and maintains the development of Vietnamese football. If they cannot do that, the managers should probably stop talking about the World Cup dream to lull fans to sleep on a summer afternoon.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/trong-tai-bat-sai-hlv-phan-ung-ai-lam-xau-hinh-anh-v-league-ar926457.html
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