Indonesia Vs Vietnam National Team Led By Thailand's Controversial VAR Referee Against Iraq

The Indonesian national team official protested to AFC regarding the controversial decision of Thailand's VAR referee in the match against Iraq (doc. PSSI).

JAKARTA - The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has released a list of match equipment serving in the Indonesia vs Vietnam national team match. One of them is a video assistant referee (VAR) from Thailand which made a controversial decision in the Garuda vs Iraq squad match.

The Indonesia vs Vietnam national team match was held at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, Doha, on Friday, January 19, 2024 at 21.30 WIB. In that match there were four referees who would serve directly in the field, and the other two would be in charge of controlling the VAR room.

The main referee is held by Sadullo Gulmurodi from Tajikistan who will be assisted by two linesman from Uzbekistan, Andrey Tsappenko and Ilgi Tantashev. While the fourth referee isputy Koh Min Kiat from Singapore.

Then, the tasks in the VAR control room are Sivakorn Pudom from Thailand and Fu Ming from China. Pu Udom, who is tasked with being the main referee for VAR in the match, is not a new figure for the Indonesian national team.

The Thai referee was also involved in the Indonesia vs Iraq national team match on the first matchday of Group D of the 2023 Asian Cup. During the Garuda squad against Iraq, Pu Udon served as assistant referee for VAR. However, one of his decisions had caused controversy, precisely when Iraq scored a second goal through Osama Rashid.

The moment of controversy occurred when Iraq's second goal was accused by coach Shin Tae-yong of being invalid because there was an offside incident in the process.

However, when Shin Tae-yong protested to the fourth official on the sidelines, VAR was not used at all to review this. The referee also still approved Iraq's second goal.

Because of the controversial incident, PSSI even raised an official protest to AFC after the match was over.

The Indonesian national team manager who is also a member of the PSSI Executive Committee (Exco), Endri Erawan, acknowledged that the protests would not change the results against Iraq. However, at least the official protest could make the AFC make improvements so that it doesn't happen again.