V-League's violence problem: European expert points to youth coaching as root cause

The opening round of the 2026 V-League had barely finished when a reckless challenge saw Van Hau handed a four-match ban. Doan Ngoc Tan stayed down on the pitch, and long-time observers recognized the pattern immediately: this was no isolated accident. Three days later, Dinh Bac was the target of two deliberate fouls from Tan Sinh and Van Son. An unnamed European expert, in an interview with Dan Tri, asked the thorny question: why do Vietnamese players tackle with such high levels of aggression? His answer had nothing to do with fitness or refereeing. It was rooted in what is being taught at youth academies. The opening V-League round unfolded under heavy rain, slippery pitches, and fierce physical battles. In that environment, studs-up lunges, stamping, and sliding tackles from behind appeared with alarming frequency. Head coaches routinely cited the weather and pitch conditions. But the European expert rejected that excuse outright. External conditions merely expose a disease that has been festering for years. How a player chooses his point of contact, how he handles a 50-50 duel, how he reacts when beaten by an opponent – all are products of a long developmental process. Across many previous answers to Dan Tri, this expert has repeated one message: football culture cannot change if the root is ignored. The expert's argument deserves scrutiny. He believes tackling technique, body-weight control, and emotional management in duels are all dangerous-skill deficiencies. These are not being taught at the youth-coach level in Vietnam. Too many youth coaches rely primarily on their playing experience or street football backgrounds. They lack AFC-standard coaching licenses. The result? They pass down the tackling habits they used in amateur football. In South Korea, where I live, this does not happen. The coaching education system there places great emphasis on reading situations just before the ball arrives. I once watched a K-League club's U13 team being taught to escape hot zones by releasing the ball one beat early. A simple technique, but it takes years to develop. In the V-League, tackling from behind is often overlooked. Tackles become tools of intimidation rather than tactical instruments. The European expert noted that some youth coaches even actively encourage players to play aggressively or intimidate opponents. In modern football, that is an outdated notion. And when these young players reach the first team, they carry a decade of such teaching with them. A reputation does not protect you; it only tells your opponents where to strike. No four-match ban can change a habit already embedded in a player's reflexes. I recall an afternoon in April 2026, two months after arriving in Korea. It was a youth match at an Incheon auxiliary field. A U15 player was fouled dangerously from behind. What caught my attention was not the tackle itself, but how the head coach reacted. He did not shout at the opponent or blame the referee. He called his player to the touchline, placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, and said one thing: 'You positioned yourself where he could do that.' The boy suddenly understood – the problem was not being fouled, but allowing himself to be dragged into a position where the opponent was forced to react. Years later, I realized this was how advanced coaching systems teach young players to read the game. The most important skill is not avoiding pain; it is never placing yourself in a vulnerable spot without an escape plan. The prevailing assumption is that harsher penalties will solve the problem. The European expert also calls for stronger deterrence. But I want to ask the opposite question. If bans were the answer, why have dangerous tackles persisted for years? Van Hau was a national team mainstay, not a dirty player. Yet in a one-on-one duel, his instinct is to commit fully. That comes from a street-football mentality: winning the ball is everything, regardless of the opponent. If we keep handing out bans, we only create players who learn to disguise their tackles more cleverly. The problem is not the volume of sanctions. It is how young players are coached. When a youth coach teaches his students to play rough as intimidation, he has failed to impart a core modern-football concept: victory comes from reading the game, not from fear. Between two phases of play, time exposes decisions the naked eye misses. I rewatched the footage of the challenge that earned Van Hau his ban. Do not look at the moment of contact; look at the two seconds before it. Van Hau chose the wrong angle of approach, lunging on an uncontrollable trajectory. A properly trained defender would sacrifice an opponent's attacking momentum to keep himself safe. Van Hau chose to win the ball at all costs. That is not instinct; that is how he was taught to respond under pressure. Space does not simply disappear; it merely changes its name to failure. In youth football, that space is the gap between coaches' awareness of their educational role and the reality that they merely reproduce what they learned from their seniors. A teenager who learns to tackle with his studs from a role model will carry that habit into the V-League. By the professional stage, the habit is so entrenched that no disciplinary ruling can undo it in one season. No club can change its disciplinary standards in a single season. No coach can erase the bad habits of a 25-year-old in a few weeks. But the VFF can begin by requiring all youth coaches to hold a minimum license before stepping onto the training ground. They can redesign exercises on tackling technique and emotional management in duels. They can send a clear message that youth football is not a place to train aggression. The V-League does not lack talent. But every tactic is a hypothesis until an opponent forces you to answer. And these brutal tackles are how the V-League answers the question of its true standard. Does the league have the patience to run a five-year reform program, or will it keep patching together suspensions until a player leaves the pitch on a stretcher? Fans can wait. But every dangerous challenge left unresolved chips away further at the belief that Vietnamese football is moving in the right direction.