Foreign coaches aggravate referee conflicts, professional league ills difficult to eliminate
In the 28 years since the professionalization of Chinese soccer, the lack of referee authority has been a persistent problem that has been difficult to eradicate.
In those years, fans still remember, in 2000, the 11th round of the A League, Sichuan-Shanghai battle, the referee Wang Jingdong ruled that foreign aid Santos handball for unintentional, infuriated the Shenhua team Yugoslavia coach Petrovic. The old Peter was furious, not only grabbed the ball, but also rushed forward to push the referee, if not for the Shenhua assistant coach Jia Xiuquan pulled, I'm afraid the unimaginable scene will happen.
After the match, the FA penalized Petrovic with a mere one-game suspension, as if by default the punishment was inadequate.
However, more violent clashes followed - in the same year, Dalian skipper Kosanovic stormed onto the pitch and chased referee Zhou Weixin, and was suspended for six matches and fined 60,000 yuan by the FA.
Despite the fact that there are only 26 rounds in the A-League, such a punishment is already quite severe.
However, compared with the later Shandong Luneng manager Kuka, Petrovic and Kosa's punishment can only be regarded as "rain".
In the 13th round of the 2015 Chinese Super League, after the match between Shandong Luneng and Guizhou Hengfeng, Luneng's coaching staff, players and the referee team clashed, and Kucka was suspended for seven months for allegedly infringing on the referee, and left Shandong with bruises and losses.
Violence against referees has become the norm in the higher leagues, and even more so in the lower leagues.
In the 2013 China B quarter-final, Shenzhen Fengpeng played against Qinghai Senke, the visiting team player Wang Chi was dissatisfied with the referee's decision, went up to scold, abuse and kicked the referee with his feet, teammates Song Chen and Huang Chao also joined in the ranks of the referee aggression.
In the end, all three admitted to violent behavior and were all banned for eight months.
However, such a punishment is not enough to deter emotionally out-of-control players, coaches and club officials. In the last two seasons of the Chinese Super League, officiating has once again become a high-risk group:
In January this year, in the first round of the Chinese Super League relegation battle between Dalian Ren and Chengdu Rongcheng, due to dissatisfaction with the referee's decision, Dalian Ren players and club officials infringed on the referee on duty, and the player Yang Hao Yu even hit the referee in the face.
In the end, Dalian was fined a total of 830,000 yuan, eight people were disciplined to varying degrees, and Yang Hao Yu, the man who got his hands dirty, was banned for one year.
Despite the painful lesson from Dalian, a similar scene played out again six months later:
On June 28, in the battle between Chengdu Rongcheng and Shenzhen, Shenzhen team official Guo Xiaofeng pushed the referee's chest, and was still unwilling to leave after being shown a red card, and then pushed the referee from behind, and was eventually banned from entering the competition stadium for 10 months, and fined RMB 160,000 yuan.
From the first A to the Chinese Super League, infringement of referees, despite occurring from time to time, most coaches and players are prone to not dare to cross the line considering the high cost.
However, in youth tournaments, low-grade leagues, amateur tournaments and even women's soccer tournaments, where the system is confusing and the way out is unclear, the cost of infringing on the referee is obviously much lower, and the use of hands at the drop of a hat has allowed violence on the pitch to spread unchecked.
Back in the 1993 National Games soccer preliminaries in Yanji, after the battle between Shaanxi and Jiangsu, Shaanxi players pulled up the corner flagpole and chased the referee all over the field, which was a farce.
In the end, the Shaanxi leader as well as the six starters were each given a 2-3 year suspension, a punishment so severe that it still tops the list.
Sixteen years later, the National Games men's football group A competition group stage "Beijing-Tianjin derby", witnessed an ugly violent group fight.
Dissatisfied with the referee, many members of the Tianjin team chased after referee He Zhi Biao after the match, with Zhao Shitong, who led the way, rushing out of the crowd, catching up with He and pushing him to the ground.
After the game, Zhao Shitong was banned for life, the Tianjin team and eight other players and TEDA team officials Shi Yong was sentenced to 5 games to 3 years ranging from the ban, six people are banned for more than 2 years, career basically declared the end.
In June 2011, after a match between Guangzhou Evergrande's second team and Sichuan University in the Chinese B League, Evergrande's second team player Zhu Pengfei punched and kicked the referee, which was worse than that of Zhao Shitong - unsurprisingly, Zhu Pengfei was also banned for life.
Compared with Zhu Pengfei, Wang Guodong, who violated the referee three times in the 2nd round of the 2006 National U17 Football League, also rewrote the record of coaches chasing referee's penalty tickets by himself.
In that match, Wang Guodong rushed into the field of play in the 32nd minute of the first half to abuse and assault the referee, causing the match to be interrupted. After the half-time and full-time match, he also violated three referees who left the field, and eventually Wang Guodong was suspended for 18 months and fined RMB 10,000 yuan.
But the most ludicrous, in the old A game, which is supposed to be the old friends catching up and having fun, the referee has become a punching bag.
In November 2016, in the third round of group matches of the Fifth Old A League Stars Football Tournament, the Hubei Old A League team competed with the Sichuan Bingugu team, the Hubei team, Ma Cheng, dissatisfied with the referee's penalty kicks, took the lead in impacting the referee on duty.
Shortly after the start from the beginning of the game, Hubei bench with the team rushed into the field in a vain attempt to infringe on the referee, both were expelled from the current tournament, and lifelong prohibited from participating in the old A A competition ......
With so much fury in the amateur game, one can only imagine what kind of prestige the referee has in the minds of the players.
There must be zero tolerance for violations of the referee
Is the CFA's standard of discretion too heavy when it comes to infringing on a referee, which can range from an eight-month suspension to a lifetime ban?
On the contrary, compared with the international soccer world, and even basketball, tennis and other sports, the infringement of the referee, as long as the expression of disrespect, the penalty + multi-game ban, is the "starting discipline", to the court to eat the lawsuit, are routine operations.
In the 31st round of La Liga 2019, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, Diego Costa was sent off by the referee after only half an hour of play for dogfighting, and after the match, the "beauty" received a big ticket for an eight-match ban.
Of these, four were for swearing and four were for pulling the referee's arm after being sent off and trying to block the latter from showing yellow cards to two other players from his team.
And in the Chinese Super League, this level of physical contact between players and referees is almost routine - but many referees generally choose to turn a blind eye and spit in the face in order to resolve the situation. This obviously only contributes to the players' sense of offense.
What are the penalties for the more egregious intentional violence against the referee?
In the Argentinean C-League, Galmenes Sport player Tirone, dissatisfied with female referee Cortadi's decision, struck Cortadi in the neck from behind, and the latter immediately fell unconscious.
The perpetrator, Tirone, was then taken away by the police and the Argentine Football Federation (AFF) announced in the first instance that he had been banned for life, with Tirone himself facing a civil lawsuit and further claims.
And the most outlandish act against a referee in the NBA is just Amir Johnson, who was blown for a technical foul back in the day when he held the ball and didn't give it, and then threw his braces at the referee.
Hands between players are commonplace in the NBA, but hitting a referee? No one dares to jump over that red line.
Compared to the international sports world's "zero tolerance" for referee violations, the Chinese Super League's distance is obvious at a glance.
