With September 2 approaching, the curtain is about to go up on the Qatar World Qualifying Asian Zone 12 tournament. It has been revealed that the AFC Referees Committee has quickly shortlisted a number of elite referees who will be involved in the legal work of the tournament. In this list, the names of world-class referees registered by the Chinese Football Association (CFA), Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhang Lei and Shen Yinhao, are listed. If they are finally appointed, they will further demonstrate their style on the highest legal stage of Asian soccer and directly fight for the interests of our soccer teams.
Six CFA-registered world-class referees named to preliminary legal list for 12-team tournament
The Top 12 will kick off in early September, and as usual, the AFC will announce the list of referees about a month before the tournament. It is worth mentioning that this year's Top 12 will introduce VAR (Video Assistant Referee) technology for the first time, which undoubtedly puts higher demands on the needs of referees.
Beiqing-Beijing headline reporter learned from AFC on August 14, AFC adjudication committee recently selected a number of referees with stable and outstanding legal performance in the past two years from the existing elite referee team to form the alternative lineup of referee legal for the 12-team tournament. A total of six referees from the CFA received a call-up letter from AFC. Four of them have the qualifications of referee, fourth official and VAR referee, namely, Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhang Lei and Shen Yinhao. Another 2 world assistant referees, Shi Xiang and Cao Yi, were also selected.
The result was not unexpected. Prior to this, Maning and Fu Ming had traveled to Qatar and other places to enforce the different stages of the West Asia Region of the AFC Champions League this season. Fu Ming also took part in the legal work for some of the matches in the main round of the men's and women's soccer matches at the Tokyo Olympics as a world VAR referee. He returned to Beijing from Tokyo on August 6 and is still under medical quarantine observation in accordance with epidemic prevention regulations.
AFC Elite Referees Only Eligible to Enforce Top 12 Matches
As for Zhang Lei, Shen Yinhao is also the AFC elite referees, selected in the list has long been a family affair. Among the seven world-class referees on the roster of the CFA, Wang Di, Jin Jingyuan and Li Haixin failed to be selected for different reasons. Wang Di, as an elite referee of the AFC, has also been a very good referee favored by the AFC in recent years. However, in the first half of this year, he has been assisting the CFA in providing technical support to the national soccer team regarding refereeing as a member of the national soccer team's working group for the preparation of the 40-team tournament. For example, as an expert, he has repeatedly explained to the national football team the essence of the latest world penalty rules and introduced to the national football team the legal characteristics of the referees they may encounter. He has also accompanied the national soccer team throughout their trip to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the Top 40 tournament. Since Wang Di is now the main person in charge of the refereeing work of the Shanghai Football Association, he has been busy with the work of his organization after returning to China with the national football delegation in mid-June and undergoing isolation observation, and has thus been absent from the legal work in the first phase of the Chinese Super League.
Kim Kyung Won is now an AFC Alternate Elite Referee and he was not selected as he was only promoted to World Class Referee this year. Li Haixin is the only world-class referee among the seven who is not yet in the AFC elite referee (including alternative) category. The referees who participate in major tournaments such as the Asian Cup and the World Cup must be elite referees according to the rules of the AFC Tailoring Committee.
The ability to enforce the 12 games depends on objective factors
Affected by the epidemic, the ability of several world-class referees on the roster of the CFA to enforce the Top 12 matches as desired is still subject to various objective factors. For example, whether the referee's work unit can give them approval for a long vacation, international travel and the relevant member associations of the country (region) of the rules governing the entry and exit of personnel, and so on. As with the Chinese team facing a long period of closed concentration, training and competition outside the country, once several world-class referees on the CFA's roster are confirmed to participate in the enforcement of the 12-team tournament, they are likely to face a long period of time outside the country to enforce the law and live, which undoubtedly poses a huge challenge for them.
