V-League On-Field Violence: Referees and VAR Must Face Consequences

On September 20, on the CLB Dong Nai pitch, the ball had already left Nguyen Dinh Bac's feet. The CLB Cong An Ha Noi striker no longer had the ball, but Huynh Tan Sinh still charged from behind. The centre-back raised his leg and stamped straight onto Bac's heel. There was no challenge. There was no pass. There was only a cynical kick. Referee Le Vu Linh saw it all and showed a yellow card. Many people at the stadium shook their heads. In the same match, Dong Nai defender Le Van Son raised his elbow into the face of the CAHN forward. Two brutal fouls, one home side, one match. The rhythm of a match is not in the score, but in the silence between two passes. That silence was torn apart. These images did not arrive alone. In round 2 of the 2026-2027 V-League, Doan Van Hau of CAHN broke Doan Ngoc Tan's leg at The Cong Viettel. In the same round, Nam Dinh's foreign striker Ezeqiuel Santos Da Silva stamped on Võ Huu Viet Hoang's abdomen at SHB Da Nang. Within less than two weeks, four destructive challenges appeared on V-League pitches. The image of the league eroded match after match. Facing this situation, representatives of VFF, VPF and the V-League organizing committee met directly with the VFF Referees Board. The demand was clear: referees must apply the law correctly, maintain discipline and stop brutal behavior. Here, 'applying the law correctly' means no missed fouls and no missed cards. A referee needs enough courage to show a red card even when the ball has already gone elsewhere. Referees do not stand outside the match. They keep the rhythm. When a referee hesitates in the face of violence, players on both sides will take matters into their own hands. V-League has seen matches turn into fighting rings because referees were afraid to show red cards. Vietnamese football has learned this painful lesson in previous seasons. Yet the match on September 20 showed the gap between demands and reality. Huynh Tan Sinh made two cynical kicks at Dinh Bac. In the clearest situation, referee Le Vu Linh only showed a yellow card. He missed a straight red card, even though Tan Sinh's 'kick without the ball' was blatant. Former VFF vice president and former VFF head of referees Duong Vu Lam criticized this harshly on Dan Tri newspaper: 'Referee Le Vu Linh missed a card in this situation. Huynh Tan Sinh kicked without the ball in a blatant way, but there was no red card.' Lam also stressed that if a player gets retroactive punishment, the referee must be punished too. 'If Tan Sinh is suspended retroactively for this mistake, then referee Le Vu Linh should also be suspended.' Duong Vu Lam once sat in the refereeing management position, so his words carry the weight of that experience. This approach shows that discipline must be seen as a system, not as isolated individuals. The most important part of Duong Vu Lam's statement is the question of VAR's responsibility. The match had a VAR crew of Vo Hoai Thuong and Nguyen Thanh Son. If they advised the main referee but Linh overruled them, the VAR crew completed their duty. If they never advised him, they must also be punished. Lam said: 'If the VAR crew advised the main referee but was overruled, then the VAR crew did their job. On the contrary, if the VAR crew did not advise referee Le Vu Linh to use a red card for the kick without the ball, the VAR referees must also be handled.' VAR was introduced to reduce errors, but it only works when the VAR crew dares to speak up. In Huynh Tan Sinh's situation, the kick without the ball happened in front of the main referee. If the VAR crew stays silent, the technology becomes an empty shell. If the VAR crew gave advice and the main referee overruled it, the problem lies with the human being, not with the technology. Public opinion may focus on condemning Huynh Tan Sinh or Le Van Son. But if the league stops at suspending players, V-League will repeat the same vicious cycle. On-field violence starts with a referee who shows mercy. When a cynical kick is only punished with a yellow card, players understand they can go further. When the VAR crew stays silent, the main referee understands he can bear less responsibility. The silence of the system is the catalyst that turns a football pitch into a place of revenge. In football, there are apologies that do not need forgiveness, only a stadium wide enough to embrace them. But before the stands can show tolerance, V-League must answer the question of responsibility. Who will suspend referee Le Vu Linh? Who will review the VAR footage? Who guarantees that nobody gets a broken leg next round? Usually, disciplinary punishment for referees is not announced publicly. But Duong Vu Lam revealed one way to detect it: follow the referee list in the next rounds. If they disappear from assignments, they are likely being suspended. That is a quiet way of handling things, but it is also the most transparent signal an outsider can read. The 2026-2027 V-League needs a new rhythm. I keep the rhythm for those running on the pitch — that is how I belong to the game. But if referees and VAR cannot keep the rhythm, the players will create their own rhythm, with elbows and boot studs. When that happens, football is no longer football.