Malaysia continues to oppose referee Ryuji Sato

According to FAM, Japanese referee Ryuji Sato made many controversial decisions in Malaysia's 0-3 loss to Vietnam on December 27 at My Dinh Stadium. After that, FAM sent a complaint to the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) asking to review Mr. Sato's decisions.

"We have sent a document with the video to the AFF Arbitration Committee for review," FAM Secretary General Noor Azman Rahman told Kosmo (Malaysia). "We know the outcome won't change, but at least it will become a lesson in the future."

At the same time, FAM wants AFF not to assign referee Sato to catch matches with the Malaysian team at the tournament. "In a word, we don't want Ryuji Sato to referee Malaysia-related matches to avoid a repeat of the above situation," Rahman said. "Hopefully AFF understands our wishes".

Referee Sato angered Malaysia when he drew a red card and directly penalized Azam Azmi Murad for the error of cooling Doan Van Hau outside the borderline in the 59th minute, and at the same time gave Vietnam a penalty. From there, central defender Que Ngoc Hai scored to make the score 2-0 for the host.

Before that, he ignored two tricky situations of Doan Van Hau with Malaysian players. In the 16th minute, when goalkeeper Dang Van Lam rushed out to catch the ball, Van Hau pushed his elbow to prevent Azam Azmi from entering the penalty area. The strong impact caused the Malaysian defender to be in pain and had to seek the care of a doctor. At the end of the first half, Van Hau raised his hand again in the face of midfielder Sharul Nazeem in a dispute near the middle of the field. The Malaysian player got angry and responded by shoving Van Hau, leading to a dispute between the two teams. Both times, referee Sato only warned, but did not punish Van Hau.

Referee Sato once caught Vietnam's 2-1 win over Malaysia in the second stage of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers for Asia in the UAE in June 2021. At that time, he received much criticism from Malaysia when he determined that Brendan Gan fouled Van Toan in the 80th minute in the penalty area to help Vietnam have a penalty to seal the victory.

Sato, 45 years old, has been a FIFA referee since 2009. He was invited to start at the 2014 V-League, and many matches had the appearance of the Vietnamese team. Japanese referees are experienced and reputable at major tournaments such as the Asian Cup and the U20 World Cup. On December 15, 2022, the Japan Football Federation (JFA) announced that referee Sato will not work in J-League 1. However, this referee can still work in other tournaments. if invited.