Twenty years later, the stage of Asian soccer is once again flooded with Chinese elements, but this time the protagonists are not soccer players, but our referees.
This is not a fantasy. However, it is not the Chinese soccer team that has broken through the Asian barrier this time, but our refereeing community. Recently, the World Football Federation announced the list of referees for the final stage of the World Cup in Qatar, and our referees, Ma Ning, Cao Yi and Shi Xiang, were on the list, with Ma Ning being honored as the main referee and Cao Yi and Shi Xiang as assistant referees.
The election of the three Chinese referees is not only epoch-making.
First of all, they are expected to continue and may even rewrite history. The last time our referees involved in the final stage of the World Cup, or 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, when Lu Jun had law enforcement Croatia against Mexico, Poland against the United States of America in two games; 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Mu Yuxin was selected to the list of assistant referees, but failed to get the opportunity to enforce the law. The two "shortlisted" are our referees "alone", which to a certain extent limits their enforcement opportunities, especially for assistant referees.
According to the World Cup practice, in order to facilitate communication and coordination on the field, FIFA tends to arrange in the same game from the same country and region of the referee and assistant referee with. Therefore, this year's World Cup in Qatar, three Chinese referees compared to the past has a "group advantage", they are expected to realize the assistant referee and even the Chinese referee team in the World Cup final round debut.
In addition, our referees were elected this time, overcoming more difficulties than ever before.On January 10, 2019, Qatar played Lebanon in Group E of the first round of the Asian Cup group stage, and Manning became the first Chinese referee to enforce the Asian Cup matches in 12 years. Subsequently, affected by the epidemic, during the World Cup referee investigation period under the rules of the World Football Federation, China's referees temporarily said goodbye to the international arena for up to 15 months, until April 2021 to return to the Asian Championship. During this period, Ma Ning, Cao Yi and Shi Xiang were stationed abroad for a long time, ensuring their attendance in all major AFC tournaments, and were successfully selected for the World Cup referee list by virtue of their outstanding performance.
During their time abroad, the three Chinese referees practiced until they became dehydrated at one point in the high temperatures of West Asia in order to ensure the quality of their training and physical fitness. Last year, they participated in the Qatar World Cup Candidate Referee Elite Seminar. Manning revealed that during the seminar, every morning there are theory tests, video case tests, physical fitness tests, practical operations, etc., training for several hours a day, the intensity and density are very high, in the return to a short period of isolation also adhere to the training, in addition, they will also give each other advice to cope with the diet and sleep problems. It was under such hard preparation that the three referees defeated many strong opponents, especially Manning, who got the qualification for the World Cup only after defeating famous referees from Bahrain, Jordan and Japan.
The election of our referees, especially Ma Ning, is also worth reevaluating and correcting some of the stereotypes of our fans. Ma Ning in the enforcement of the Chinese Super League is known as tough, had a single game to make four penalty kicks, show more than a dozen yellow cards, sent off two or three people into a routine, although the vast majority of them are not a miscarriage of justice, but he still became a "thorn in the side of many fans", suffered all kinds of verbal attacks, and even "check the papers" and other attacks beyond the conventional scale. Thesis" and other attacks beyond the conventional scale.
Manning's ability to stay tough for a long time is a reflection of his full confidence in his professionalism; the fact that he has "offended" almost every team reflects to a large extent his professional attitude of neutrality and non-discrimination. In contrast, the last Chinese "Golden Whistle" Lu Jun, who appeared in the World Cup, is a far cry, as he was imprisoned for accepting bribes in the 2013 Chinese soccer anti-corruption case, and even after his release in 2014, he was barred from continuing to work in the soccer profession for life.
Three Chinese referees into the Men's World Cup, in Chinese soccer from the men's national football and all levels of professional league into the trough at the moment, is tantamount to a shot in the arm. Although their entry, can not directly play a role in the progress of Chinese players and the league, but at least can let more people realize, adhere to the professional, enduring loneliness and suffering, and at the same time continue to actively with the global professional standards, learning from the advanced experience, will be closer to the mainstream of the world of soccer rather than drift farther and farther away.
