Thailand comfortably beat Vietnam 1–0 on home soil to seal a 3–2 aggregate win and retain the crown for yet another 2 years. Theerathon Bunmathan was voted the most valuable player of the tournament.
What impressed me most about Theerathon was not his consistent and superb performance but what he said after the match. Theerathon reportedly said that he wanted VAR to be available in future AFF cups because all participating teams are neighbors and should improve their games together instead of committing faults or injuring each other.
Media and coaches cried VAR during and after the 2020 AFF Suzuki Cup organized in Singapore from 5 December 2021 to 1 January 2022. Singapore protested several controversial decisions in its semifinal against Indonesia. Similarly, Vietnam’s coach Park Hang Seo called for VAR to be used in future editions after his team’s loss in the first semi-final against Thailand. Vietnam, however, should have felt lucky that VAR was not there to catch its players committing several faults against Thai players.
The tension was less severe this round, I feel, but there were still many controversial. Doan Van Hau, the young Vietnamese left-back, featured in several high tensions, both by him and against him, in the matches against Malaysia and Indonesia. Thailand also had several complaints about the referee’s decision in its semifinal against Malaysia.
As the recent FIFA World Cup show us, VAR may not absolve AFF cups from all controversies. But it will reduce the number of intentionally harmful tackles and unfair commits, and refocus players to actual playing. I don’t consider Theerathon a well-behaved player, but he proved this point. Compared to the 2020 edition, Theerathon played much better while committing fewer faults.
Thus he was right. AFF Cup needs VAR for the development of football in the region.