On the afternoon of July 14, Vietnam Professional Football Joint Stock Company held a draw ceremony and scheduled the V.League 2025-2026.
On the sidelines of the press conference, Mr. Tran Anh Tu - Chairman of the Board of Directors of VPF shared remarkable things about VAR and refereeing.
"Currently, we have 4 VAR vehicles. The matches in the V.League and some First Division matches are all arranged with VAR vehicles.
In the next season, the final round will have 7 matches taking place at the same time, but only 4 matches will have VAR.
Therefore, some remaining matches without VAR will have foreign referees added to ensure objectivity," said Mr. Tu.
Every leader said that at the Executive Committee meeting last June, VPF agreed to buy more VAR vehicles and is in the process of completing procedures. Increasing VAR vehicles will help make it more convenient, especially maintaining VAR in the Central region.
Regarding the refereeing work in the new season, Mr. Tran Anh Tu shared: "VFF and VPF always focus on quality training.
However, mistakes still appeared in some matches, possibly due to human or professional factors. Those errors were all handled by the VFF Referee Board, drawing experience.
To prepare for the new season, VPF and the VFF Referee Board will increase referee training, and at the same time request the Referee Board to invite good FIFA lecturers to serve the training work with some innovations.
Recently, some referees in the V.League still depend on VAR, so they lack initiative in controlling the match in some situations, and have to let VAR intervene."
In V.League 2025-2026, the regulations stipulate that there will be 2 direct relegation spots, corresponding to 2 promotion spots from the First Division. This is a change from last season when there were only 1.5 relegation spots (play-off).
"This creates a much more attractive and dramatic competition, which can last until the final rounds.
Last season, when some teams had enough points to stay in the league, their positivity was not as expected, and their appeal decreased.
Therefore, increasing the relegation zone will make the tournament better," Mr. Tu emphasized.
