Vietnam wrestler suspended for beating referee over alleged unfair judgment

A Vietnamese wrestler has been suspended after he physically attacked a referee while watching a match from the stands at the 2014 National Sports Festival in the northern province of Thai Binh on Wednesday.

Le Duy Hoi, a wrestler from Team Can Tho City, suddenly entered the competition mat and began to beat Nguyen Dinh Hung, the referee of the men’s 66kg match between Bui Tuan Anh of Hanoi and Ngo The Sao from the army team, while he was watching it as a spectator. 

Hoi, who competes for Can Tho on loan from the army team, argued that the referee judged unfairly against Sao, his former teammate.

Just before the attack, Nghiem Xuan Thai – head of the wrestling department of the army – publicly protested against Hung during the same match because of his purported unfair judgment.

After the incident, the organizing board met and decided to suspend both Hoi from competing and Thai from coaching during the tournament.

In a talk with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Thai admitted that Hoi was wrong for attacking the referee and added he had already asked Hoi to apologize to the official.

However, Thai argued that he was not wrong for protesting the referee’s decisions.

“It seems that several referees are not fair and lack professional knowledge,” Thai complained.

Aware of the possible unfair judgment by several referees, the army team said they had suggested that the organizing board not appoint them to officiate matches involving army athletes, but their request was rejected.

Tran Duc Phan, head of the technical unit at the annual national sports event, confirmed that referee Hung was correct in officiating the match yesterday, which ended with a 4-1 victory for the Hanoi wrestler, Tuan Anh.

At the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, Hoi kicked a South Korean referee in the butt during a match he lost to a Thai opponent.

The transfer of wrestlers from Hanoi and the army team to other provincial squads has become popular in recent tournaments, especially as the two teams have trained many qualified athletes but other provinces do not have even enough training facilities.

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