Call for police investigation into football referee penalty debacle

Long An FC's chairman, Vo Thanh Nhien said he would ask the police to investigate the referee after his team were left on the end of a controversial 5-2 defeat, triggered by a weak 80th minute penalty decision.

Long An FC's chairman, Vo Thanh Nhien has backed his team and said he would ask the criminal police department to investigate the referee Nguyen Trong Thu after his team were left on the end of a controversial 5-2 defeat, triggered by a weak 80th minute penalty decision.

Unsurprisingly, the head of the V-League organising board, Nguyen Minh Ngoc, vowed to strictly punish Long An FC after they walked off the pitch following a highly- controversial penalty decision late on in a match on February 19.

  

Long An FC's chairman Vo Thanh Nhien argues with referee Nguyen Trong Thu during a match on February 19

With the game finely balanced at 2-2, referee Nguyen Trong Thu controversially awarded HCM City FC a penalty in the 80th minute of the match between Long An FC and HCM City FC, after deciding that Hoang Lam of Long An FC had pushed over HCM City’s Rod Dyachenko.

Long An's players walked off the field in protest, only later returning to the field, but refusing to play properly. The subsequent penalty was scored with the Long An goalkeeper facing away from the penalty-taker. Referee Nguyen Trong Thu decided to end the game early with HCM City 5-2 up.

Long An FC's coach Ngo Quang Sang said, "I'll take responsibility if the camera shows that we were wrong. But who'll punish the referee if he was wrong?"

However, head of the V-League organising board, Nguyen Minh Ngoc was not pleased with the way Long An FC protested. He said, "I attended that match and the referee was right to call that. Then the captain of Long An told his members to stop playing. That's unacceptable, it's disrespectful towards the crowd and the league."

Ngoc went on to say that they would have strict punishment for such supposedly unsportsmanlike behaviour in order to ‘maintain discipline’. Head of the referee board Nguyen Van Mui said no matter what the referee's decisions were, the players must continue the game.