The first referee in Vietnam to be assisted by VAR in a match

Recently, 18 referees and assistant referees in Vietnam have participated in a VAR training course to practice officiating "matches" with VAR in short-duration simulated situations.

The first referee in Vietnam to be supported by VAR in a match

Referee Mai Xuan Hung in the match supported by VAR (Photo: VFF)

The learning process takes place continuously with high intensity from 8am to 5:30pm every day, to complete the progress of each training step according to FIFA's requirements.

Some referees have completed a sufficient number of exercises in training steps 3a and 3b of low and medium difficulty (5 vs 5 matches of about 10 minutes and 11 vs 11 matches of about 30 minutes).

Next, these referees will enter stage 3c with the highest level of difficulty (full 90-minute match).

The first class was held at Hang Day Stadium at 8:30 a.m. on June 14 with the support of the Hanoi Club youth team.

The session was supervised by FIFA expert Bhaveshan Moorghen. The three referees assigned to practice in this first session were main referee Mai Xuan Hung, VAR referee Duong Huu Phuc and assistant VAR Le Vu Linh.

In addition, 3 referees and assistant referees from the Hanoi Referee Board will participate in supporting the match.

Sharing after the training session, VAR referee Duong Huu Phuc said: “My colleagues and I are excited about implementing this referee support technology.

Besides, there is still pressure and the VAR referee force needs more time to perfect their VAR room management skills.

With VAR, referees will have less pressure and more accuracy. Of course, everything needs more time and VAR is just a system and the operator is still the referee."

Mr. Phuc further revealed that there are 4 situations that VAR will consider and intervene in: Whether there is a goal or not, whether there is a penalty or not, whether there is a red card or not, and the referee's wrong card decisions.

The first referee in Vietnam to be supported by VAR in a match

Referee Mai Xuan Hung in the unofficial match that took place on the morning of June 14 (Photo: VFF)

Meanwhile, main referee Mai Xuan Hung shared: "At first, there were still some confusions about the coordination method as well as the differences in refereeing methods when there was VAR compared to before.

For example, a player on the attacking team might be offside. Previously, referees would make a decision immediately. With VAR, we would let the game continue, leading to a goal.

The VAR referee reviews the situation and advises the referee to decide whether to award the goal or not.

At first, the referees will need a lot of time to operate. Once they get used to it, the time will definitely be reduced so as not to affect the match."

According to the roadmap, class members will continue to complete training steps 3a and 3b and move on to training step 3c expected from June 16.

VAR will only be officially applied in Vietnam after passing FIFA's strict testing and evaluation steps.

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