Selangor Journal
— Picture by TWITTER/FAM_Malaysia

AFF Cup: Malaysia should have been awarded free kick, not penalty to Vietnam — Subkhiddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — Former national referee Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh was of the view that Malaysia should have been given a free kick while the decision to award a penalty kick to Vietnam was inappropriate in the controversial Group B match of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Cup 2022 at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi last night.

He was of the opinion that the referee of the match, Ryuji Sato, should refer to Doan Van Hau’s first foul which was seen pushing Muhammad Azam Azmi Murad in the 59th minute when the pillar of the Harimau Malaya’s defence wanted to remove the ball from inside the Malaysian penalty area.

“According to the rules, if an incident occurs outside the playing area and the ball is still in play, the referee must stop the game for a moment and restart, either giving a free kick, an indirect free kick or if an incident occurs in an area near the boundary line of the goal or the edge of the goal line, a penalty kick must be awarded.

“However, the Vietnamese player was seen committing a reckless challenge on the Malaysian player and he (Van Hau) should be blamed first because the ball was still in play… so in my view the referee should have given a direct free kick to the Malaysian team,” Subkhiddin said when contacted by Bernama today.

The ‘heated’ situation saw Sato show the red card to Muhammad Azam in the 62nd minute after the referee from Japan accused the young Terengganu FC player of fouling Doan Van Hau outside the pitch before the hosts were awarded a penalty kick.

Que Ngoc Hai made the most of the opportunity to double the lead after Nguyen Tien Linh had put the team in front in the first half before Vietnam wrapped up a stylish victory with Nguyen Hoang Duc’s finish nearing full-time.

In the meantime, Subkhiddin, who is also a technical instructor of Fifa, said the red card to Muhammad Azam should have been given when he was seen retaliating after being pushed down by Van Hau earlier.

“An act of retaliation or reaction can be subject to a red card, but the match should have been restarted based on the home player’s first offence,” he said.

Meanwhile, Subkhiddin hoped that the squad coached by Kim Pan Gon will quickly forget the black episode in Hanoi and rise up again against Singapore in their last Group B match at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil, on Jan 3, in their quest to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament labelled ‘the Asean World Cup’.

He said the players do not need to be sad about the defeat to the Golden Star Warriors yesterday and wants to see them continue to play tactically guided by the South Korean manager in the ‘Causeway Derby’ after this.

The defeat saw Malaysia fail to end their winless drought against Vietnam since 2014 – losing seven times and drawing once, while last night’s success saw Vietnam top Group B with six points from two games.

Malaysia, who was the champion in 2010, has played three games and is in second place with six points, followed by Singapore, who has just played two games, is in third place (six points) while Myanmar and Laos are at the bottom after failing to collect any points.

— Bernama

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