Challenges and Opportunities for Chinese Football
In recent news, domestic soccer commentator Ma Xing revealed that in this year's October meeting of the AFC, the deputy secretary general of the AFC, Han Mou, expressed his gratitude to the Qatar Football Association for its support after the cancellation of the Asian Cup, while at the same time expressed dissatisfaction with the "irresponsible" decision of our football association, which brought great challenges to the AFC in terms of decision-making.
In the recent AFC Champions League match between Wuhan Three Town and Urawa Red Diamonds, the referee favored the opposition on several occasions, with Saudi referee Majid Mohammed Shamrani failing to award a penalty despite VAR confirming an apparent handball by Urawa Red Diamonds.
Looking back at the Asian 36 in the World Cup qualifiers, there were also obvious misjudgments. For example, when the national soccer team played against South Korea, Hwang Si-Chan was tripped in the penalty area, but the referee did not award a penalty kick. Qatar referee Jassim, on the other hand, was decisive in awarding the penalty at the crucial moment.
In the second half, the national football team counterattack, Dai Weijun pass hit Huang Renfan back, Huang Renfan fell to the ground, the national football team had a great opportunity to counterattack, but the referee paused the game, signaling the South Korean doctor to enter the treatment, triggering the national football players dissatisfaction.
Ma Xing pointed out that Chinese soccer is facing unprecedented challenges and unfair treatment by the AFC will become the norm. Speaking of which, many Chinese fans may also recall the provocative incident involving Buriram United at Zhejiang's home ground, where the final outcome of the AFC's punishment could be unfavorable to the Zhejiang team.
In the face of internal and external pressure, how should Chinese soccer respond? Obviously, it cannot rely on its own strength alone. As the new president of the Football Association, Song Kai needs to restart soccer diplomacy and raise our status in the AFC.
In fact, we already have referees such as Manning who enforce important AFC matches and can create a level playing field for the World Cup qualifiers through referee public relations work. This work is no less important than youth training and is easier to address.
Looking back at the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, the national soccer team was able to hang on until the final round without the excellent command of coach Lippi and relatively fair referee enforcement. In this regard, former FA chairman Cai Zhenhua has set an example for us.
