Vietnamese Referees Face VAR Technology Challenges: Analysis Ahead of AFF Cup 2026

On August 13, 2026, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) announced a list of 12 referees trained to use VAR technology for the upcoming tournament. This number represents only 15% of the total national-level referees, a ratio that raises significant questions about Vietnamese football's readiness for the video assistant referee era. Evidence from 5 VAR trial matches in the V-League 2026-2026 shows 3 controversial decisions related to video-assisted refereeing. Specifically, the incident at minute 67 in the Hanoi FC vs HCMC FC match at round 14 - where referee Nguyen Duc Vap initially awarded a penalty to the home team before overturning the decision after 4 minutes and 23 seconds of VAR review - exposed the gap between regulations on paper and actual implementation. According to FIFA regulations, the maximum time for referees to consult VAR is 90 seconds. However, data from the 5 trial matches shows an average time of 147 seconds - exceeding the permitted threshold by 63%. Experts suggest this is not merely a technical issue, but reflects psychological pressure when referees must make decisions under the watchful eye of the system. Ahead of AFF Cup 2026, the Vietnamese national team will play at My Dinh National Stadium - one of 3 venues equipped with FIFA-standard VAR systems. This means referees officiating matches involving coach Kim Han-jin's squad will operate under technological surveillance, while opponents like Thailand and Indonesia have had years of VAR experience. The core issue is not whether to have VAR, but how Vietnamese referees operate this system under specific pressure conditions. A 2026 study by the University of Physical Education and Sports in Bac Ninh revealed that 68% of Vietnamese referees struggle to distinguish between intentional and unintentional fouls when reviewing video - a skill considered fundamental to VAR decisions. Law 12 of the Laws of Football stipulates that a foul only qualifies as a penalty basis when elements of intent are present. However, Vietnamese referees during the trial period showed a tendency to penalize only 34% of box collision incidents, significantly lower than the 52% rate in J-League and 58% in K-League. This discrepancy raises questions about unified enforcement standards. VFF Technical Director Hoang Anh Tuan acknowledged that VAR referee training remains a work in progress. According to Tuan, plans to send 8 referees to Japan and South Korea to learn from experience in Q3 2026 are necessary steps. But with AFF Cup 2026 just months away, is there enough time to narrow the capability gap? The answer lies in a specific strategy. Rather than attempting to perfect every aspect, VFF could focus on the 3 most common controversial situations: box collisions, millimeter offside calls, and hand ball incidents. Establishing standard operating procedures for these 3 scenarios would significantly reduce decision pressure on referees. On the other hand, experience from major tournaments shows that VAR's presence does not eliminate controversy entirely - it merely changes the nature of that controversy. At the 2026 World Cup, there were 23 VAR decisions contested by national teams, with 7 cases considered serious deviations. This reminds us that technology is a support tool, not a complete replacement for human judgment. For Vietnamese football, the real challenge is not just technical training, but building a referee system confident enough to make correct decisions within 90 seconds, under the eyes of millions of viewers watching through screens. That is the equation that needs solving before AFF Cup 2026.