On the night of July 12, Shanghai Port hosted Wuhan Sanzhen in the 16th round of the Chinese Super League. This summit matchup was expected to be a sparkling affair, but it became a controversial one due to referee Ma Ning's repeated penalties. In the first half, Manning showed two red cards and three yellow cards in just four minutes, Wuhan Sanzhen instantly fell into a man less battle, and the suspense of the game was lost. Although there is no excuse for strict enforcement of the law, Manning's penalties seem to be too harsh, and double standards are often seen.
Both sides sent their main players to the match, and it was a fierce battle right from the start. However, in the 38th minute, Caron fell to the ground in defense and Manning awarded a penalty kick, Oscar shot but was easily parried by Liu Dengzheng. Immediately after, Ren Hang was sent off for two consecutive yellow cards for a foul in defense. Wei Shihao, who was on the bench, was also red-carded for protesting the penalty. In addition, He Chao, Wu Fei and Buytijiang also received yellow cards for their dissatisfaction with the penalty. Maning showed two red cards and three yellow cards in four minutes, and Wuhan Sanzhen suffered heavy losses. Behind this controversy, do the players have the right to question the referee's decisions? Maning's consecutive cards seemed a bit excessive. Ren Hang's second yellow card seemed a bit unjustified. When Caron was pulled down, Renhang inadvertently touched his opponent, and Manning showed the yellow card for the first time. But apparently, Manning forgot that Renhang already had a yellow card on him, so he didn't show a red card. Finally, after being reminded by the Hong Kong players, Manning penalized Ren Hang. The yellow card was shown, which makes people doubt the professionalism of Manning. In addition, Maning failed to penalize Caron for his action in the penalty area and Zhang Linpeng for his put down of Aziz. There were also a number of fouls committed by Wuhan Sanzhen before Caron built up his advantage, but they were all ignored by Manning. Such a double standard makes one question Manning's impartiality. There are two other puzzling issues with this game. Firstly, the CFA match yet the VAR video was provided by Shanghai TV. Secondly, throughout the match, the camera lens of Shanghai TV was always focused on the bench of Wuhan Sanzhen. This phenomenon is extremely rare among other Chinese Super League teams. Fans not only witnessed the scene where Maning penalized Ren Hang, but also saw the whole process of his penalty for Wei Shihao's red card. Shanghai TV's photography seemed to have anticipated the story of Wuhan Sanzhen's bench. An exciting soccer match lost its focus due to the referee's frequent penalties. This matchup between Shanghai Port and Wuhan Sanzhen should have been the pinnacle of the Chinese Super League. However, Manning's frequent calls made the game confusing. There is no problem with strict enforcement by referees, but too many double standards are a worrying state of affairs in Chinese soccer.
