HANOI (31 March 2012) – Duong Vu Lam, the chairman of the Referee’s Department of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) has expressed his dismay at the news that all five Vietnamese referees had failed their fitness test at the training course for new FIFA-certified referees provided by the AFC in Bangkok this month.
The five are Nguyen Trong Thu, Pham Manh Long, Nguyen Anh Toan, Ha Thi Phuong, and Truong Thi Le Trinh.
“With the exception for injury, all other excuses are unacceptable,” said Vu Lam.
It is not the first time that Vietnam referees had failed the test where in 2010, two referee assistants, Nguyen Hoang Minh and Nguyen Ngoc Ha, were unable to make it through the same test. The same thing happened to their counterpart Nguyen Phong Vu a year later.
AFC have cautioned the referee departments of all member football federation to tighten the annual physical tests for their referees.
