VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese referees and assistants were struggling with the physical aspect of their jobs and English language qualifications required by FIFA to officiate in World Cup matches, the Viet Nam Football Federation's newly appointed head of referees Duong Vu Lam said.

Lam, who was speaking at a training course in Da Nang in preparation for next year's V-League, said Viet Nam had only a few FIFA-accredited referees and assistants who could officiate in World Cup qualifiers and the Olympic Games.

The 47-year-old said the VFF would take advantage of training programmes run by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

"We want to train lecturers who can coach local referees to meet FIFA standards so they can officiate over World Cup matches in the future," said Lam, who is also vice chairman of the ASEAN Football Federation.

Out of the 110 professional Vietnamese referees and assistants, only referee Vo Minh Tri and his assistants Nguyen Ngoc Ha and Nguyen Hoang Minh have been accredited by FIFA to officiate over two 2014 World Cup qualifiers and 2012 London Olympic qualifiers in September and October.

This year, Viet Nam has three referees and four linesmen who meet FIFA's criteria.

In a pre-season tournament last year, 14 out of 65 referees were disqualified for failing fitness tests.

In a match-fixing scandal in 2005, around 20 referees, players and officials were both arrested and jailed for alleged involvement in match fixing and offering bribes.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News