Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company (VPF) and the Referee Board of the Vietnam Football Federation (Referee Board) are completing the final stages of VAR training for 18 referees.
With great expectations, according to Head of the Referee Board Dang Thanh Ha, VAR only plays a supporting role for the referee.
Vietnamese referees ready to use VAR
Vietnamese referees get familiar with VAR to prepare for the 2023 - 2024 season. Photo: VPF
Could you tell us what stage the VAR training process has reached so far and how accessible are Vietnamese referees to VAR?
The referees have undergone two training phases and are entering the third, final phase according to FIFA regulations.
In the first two stages, the referee mainly gets acquainted with the equipment, how to operate it, and the coordination between positions, analyzing the situations available in the LAB room.
In phase 3 (starting from June 8), referees will get used to analyzing real situations on the field and practice on the VAR car.
Initially just a few scripted situations but then it will be a full match. All stages are closely monitored by FIFA.
Basically, Vietnamese referees have a good approach and are mastering the equipment and regulations. But this is just my personal assessment, whether it is achieved or not depends on FIFA's decision. Only when licensed, VAR in Vietnam can operate in practice.
According to you, what is the biggest difficulty when referees approach VAR?
In fact, it's not too difficult technologically because VAR will have IT staff to fully support the machine calibration, choosing this angle, that situation, where it needs to be fast and where it needs to be slow.
The most difficult thing is to assess and analyze the situation. There are difficult situations, the referees assess and analyze the situation differently.
For VAR to be most effective, what factor is decisive, sir?
It is the people. Machines can be bought with money but people cannot. For VAR to operate effectively, referees need to master the process and improve their analytical and judgmental skills.
Comments and analysis will help the referee make the final decision, VAR only plays a supporting and consulting role. In other words, the referee's ability will be the factor that governs the effectiveness of VAR. The ability to coordinate between IT and the referee also needs to be smooth because there is not much time and VAR does not interfere deeply in the match.
VAR only assists the referee
Do you expect VAR to help referees in the V-League limit errors?
Of course, VAR plays a role in assisting the referee in analyzing the situation. There are collision situations that the referee cannot see, but the VAR camera angle will help the referee have a better view and make an assessment of that situation.
That said, referee errors will certainly decrease with VAR, but VAR cannot replace referees. Decisions are still made by the referee and errors can still occur.
Don't expect VAR to completely solve referee errors. In the world, they apply VAR but referees still make mistakes, even in big playgrounds like the Premier League, even the World Cup when falling into difficult situations.
Even with VAR, the referee can still make a mistake, then the reaction of the fans will definitely be huge, do you feel pressured?
Everyone expects VAR to solve referee errors, but as discussed, errors still occur, so referees and the Referee Board will face a lot of pressure.
In reality, we see that the common mentality when VAR comes into play is to want clear black and white, but football is multifaceted, there will be many situations that make it difficult for the referee to determine whether there is a fault or not.
It is normal for the VAR referee and the referee to have different opinions. On the field, the referee's decision must be respected.
Recently, referees in V-League have made many mistakes related to judgment errors. According to you, VAR cannot replace referees in judgment, so improving the quality of referees is urgent?
Yes, refereeing capacity needs to be improved and the ability to work with VAR also needs to be popularized. Currently, we only have 18 referees who have been trained and familiarized with this support technology.
In the future, the Referee Board will organize training courses so that all referees can master VAR when assigned tasks.
In addition, in order to create unity in assessment and analysis of situations, the Referee Board will have to promote practical professional courses with detailed explanations in the spirit of the law, thereby creating reflexes for referees when encountering situations arising on the field.
We will also regularly invite FIFA lecturers to teach classes to improve analysis and judgment skills.
Thank you!
According to information from VPF, two VAR vehicles deployed by this company with sponsorship from Hoanh Son Group have been completed and put into operation at the third phase of referee training.
In the near future, FIFA will also send information about the plan to sponsor 2 VAR vehicles for Vietnam. The VAR vehicles deployed by VPF with all equipment of the VAR system are imported under the supervision of quality and technical standards of FIFA.
VAR will only be officially applied after passing FIFA's testing steps on both technology and referee training.
VPF also said that VAR requires a minimum of 6 - 8 cameras on the field and there must be at least 6 screens in the computer room.
However, the devices are only one part, the collection and transmission of match data must use EVS Xeebra's solution and the communication must use Vokkero's solution, both specified by FIFA.
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