Violence Returns in V-League 2026: VAR Is Not Enough, Discipline Must Deter

On the night of September 20, at Hang Day Stadium, the final whistle had barely faded when the medical staff of The Cong Viettel sprinted onto the pitch. Doan Ngoc Tan lay clutching his shin, his face twisted in pain after a two-footed challenge from Doan Van Hau. No one needed VAR to understand the severity; one look at the angle of the ankle said it all. Four days later, at the same stadium, the CAHN versus Dong Nai match produced another disturbing scene: Huynh Tan Sinh deliberately stamped on Dinh Bac's foot after the ball had already gone out of play. Less than fifteen minutes later, Dinh Bac was again fouled by another Dong Nai defender in an off-the-ball challenge. Violence, once thought to have been eradicated by three seasons of VAR, is returning to the V-League 2026 just three rounds into the season. Over the past three seasons, the story experts told was one of remarkable improvement in on-field conduct. Since VAR was officially introduced, dangerous tackles nearly disappeared from evening highlight shows. Referees could rely on technology to catch unseen incidents, and players began to compete more carefully and cleverly. This contributed to the national team's success on the international stage, with a generation of players learning to control aggression within the rules. But within just two recent rounds, violence has returned with alarming density. Most concerning is that these violations are not impulsive acts of anger. Ezequiel Santos Da Silva's stamp on an opponent's stomach at Nam Dinh, Huynh Tan Sinh's cold kick after the ball had left, and Van Hau's two-footed lunge at Doan Ngoc Tan all occurred deliberately, coldly, and in full view of the referee. Watching matches over many seasons, I have recognized a critical line between ordinary fouls and violent conduct: the position of the ball. In the Dong Nai versus CAHN match, Tan Sinh's kick at Dinh Bac is a classic example. The ball was out of bounds, the referee had stopped play, yet Tan Sinh still chose to place his foot on the young striker's heel. In professional football circles, this is called a cold kick - an act of retaliation, provocation, or deliberate injury. When the ball is in dispute, a player can claim he was going for the ball. But when the ball is gone, there is no justification. This story takes me back nearly a decade, when Tran Anh Khoa of SHB Da Nang had to say goodbye to top-level football after a horrific challenge. Anh Hung of An Giang also suffered a broken leg against Ninh Binh and never regained his best form. Vietnamese football once endured a period when serious injuries became an annual event. Punishments at that time were considered too lenient. Hoang Vu Samson once stamped on an opponent's goalkeeper, but the subsequent ban was not strong enough to deter. With such penalties, the return of violence is no surprise. A mistake is valuable when it teaches you to protect others from that same mistake - but only when people are willing to learn from the past. VAR was expected to change everything. In theory, when referees can review slow-motion replays from multiple angles, no player would be foolish enough to commit violence in front of cameras. The past three seasons proved this: red cards and rough tackles decreased significantly. But the 2026 season reveals another flaw in the system. VAR's existence does not mean newly promoted clubs or foreign players debuting in the V-League understand how it operates. Players arriving from the First Division, where VAR is not yet consistently installed, still carry old foul habits. They do not realize that moves hidden from the referee are now captured in detail by cameras. The gap in officiating infrastructure between divisions is creating a dangerous awareness gap. Ezequiel's stamp at Nam Dinh also raises questions about foreign player recruitment. A Brazilian newcomer, unfamiliar with VAR's strict application in Vietnam, can bring unnecessary disciplinary risk to his club. Clubs should include awareness of V-League disciplinary standards in their recruitment criteria. Viewers see players leave; I see late-night phone calls lasting until 2 a.m. between agents and sporting directors, where questions about VAR, suspensions, and media risk are weighed before a signature is ever reached. Modern football is not only about technique; it is about who understands the rules faster. The CAHN-Dong Nai match is a complete case study of disciplinary instability. Dong Nai lost 1-4 and had a man sent off, yet the referee still allowed a player showing signs of losing control to remain on the pitch. Dinh Bac, CAHN's most promising young striker, was brutally fouled not once but twice in a single match. Expert Doan Minh Xuong, who has followed domestic football for years, noted that with such superfluous tackles, the key is not the final decision but firm on-field intervention. Indecision creates a bad precedent, making players think they can escape punishment if they commit the act when the referee is not looking closely. In the same match, referee Le Vu Linh came under intense scrutiny for failing to show a direct red card to Tan Sinh. The VAR team of Vo Hoai Thuong and Nguyen Thanh Son was asked to explain why only a yellow card was confirmed. The question experts ask: if a cold kick from behind, without the ball, right in front of the referee, remains only a yellow card, what is VAR's purpose in protecting players? The inconsistency among referees and across rounds is eroding the confidence of players and fans alike. I have sat with members of the VFF Disciplinary Committee in private meetings. They do not lack goodwill; they lack a fast, transparent mechanism. The CAHN-Dong Nai match took place on September 20, and just one day later, the Disciplinary Committee held an emergency meeting and demanded explanations from the referee and VAR officials. Such a rapid response shows how serious the matter is, but it also reflects a reality: discipline is only activated when media and public pressure escalate. Duong Vu Lam, a well-known football security expert, once said that ugly plays spread overnight and can force authorities to act faster than any formal process. This creates a double effect: actions that go viral are punished heavily, while those not clearly captured escape lightly. Justice becomes dependent on virality rather than the severity of the act. There is another blind spot few articles mention: attributing all responsibility to individual players ignores structural questions. Why is there so much tension between a well-resourced club like CAHN and a newly promoted side like Dong Nai? It is no coincidence that victims of past serious violence - Tran Anh Khoa, Anh Hung - came from clubs outside the top investment group. Financial and physical gaps left unchecked lead weaker teams to use violence as a tool of balance, while stronger teams use aggression to dominate. The problem goes beyond individual players. It is a story of the entire competitive system, where smaller clubs lack access to technology, top-flight experience, and protection from club owners. The physical pressure on young players also demands serious attention. Dinh Bac is one of Vietnamese football's most promising young forwards. Being targeted twice in one match is no longer a random occurrence. Behind every contract is a human being asking: does this place need me? That question becomes haunting when one realizes that a single malicious challenge can end a career overnight. Elite sport always carries a line between determination and violence, but that line must be protected by referees, VAR, and the Disciplinary Committee through strong sanctions, not vague statements. Watching each round closely, I have noticed teams beginning to adapt positively to VAR. They are more cautious in 50-50 situations, avoid tackles from behind, and actively withdraw their feet when an opponent's leg appears. This shows technology can change behavior, but only when accompanying penalties are truly severe. Conversely, if incidents like Tan Sinh's cold kick result only in a yellow card, the message to young players in the First Division will be: take the risk, because VAR does not always protect you. When the world stalls, players' voices still quietly echo through every call - and many calls I have received from young players recently are not about salaries or contracts, but about fear of injury, of being cold-kicked, of having no one to protect them. From the perspective of someone who has followed Vietnamese football through many ups and downs, I believe the solution is not to emotionally increase all penalties. What is needed is a transparent disciplinary system based on data and consistent across all rounds. We must clearly classify three types of conduct: tactical fouls, loss-of-control fouls, and deliberate violent conduct. Each requires its own sanction framework, published before the season begins. For cold kicks, stamping on grounded opponents, and two-footed challenges, a minimum ban of four to six matches should apply regardless of whether the referee issued a card on the pitch. When penalties are standardized, media pressure decreases because no one can intervene in the process. Players will know the consequences in advance and self-regulate - something no single red card can achieve. Clubs also need to take responsibility for their players' conduct. If a club receives three or more red cards for violent conduct in one season, it should face fines or disciplinary deduction points, forcing coaches to take discipline education seriously. This approach has been applied in several European leagues with clear results. Vietnamese football has moved far beyond the pre-VAR era, but its disciplinary infrastructure remains pre-technological. This gap must be closed in the 2026 season, or what happened in round 3 will only be the beginning of an injury-filled season. It is also worth mentioning the responsibility of the media. Repeatedly broadcasting violent tackles on television and social media can inadvertently turn offenders into celebrities in a negative way, creating wrong role models for young people. I am not advocating hiding the truth, but the narrative should focus on consequences, sanctions, and lessons, rather than simply generating views through gruesome slow-motion replays. A violent tackle shown over and over without context of disciplinary outcomes becomes a second kind of violence - media violence - compounding the victim's suffering. Finally, what troubles me most is the fate of Doan Ngoc Tan himself. The The Cong Viettel player is facing a second broken leg in his career. Everyone in the profession knows a player who has suffered a broken leg must overcome enormous psychological barriers before returning to top-level competition. No sanction can give Tan back his training days, his missed matches, and more importantly, his sense of safety on the pitch. Football is a contact sport, but the line between contact and assault is something anyone in professional football must recognize. If those in charge do not see it, or pretend not to see it, what happened to Doan Ngoc Tan will not be the last time this season. The V-League 2026 is only three rounds old, but the events of the past two rounds have raised a life-or-death question: do we have the courage to protect our own players, or will we repeat the painful history of Tran Anh Khoa, of Anh Hung, of countless young talents who fell on the road to stardom? VAR is not the final answer; it is only a tool to see the problem clearly. The answer lies in the decisiveness of the Disciplinary Committee, the seriousness of clubs in educating players, and the collective voice of the football community to end tackles that are no longer football. When no one speaks out, violence speaks for itself.