With foreign coaches at the helm, provocations against referees are frequent
The professionalization of the national football team for 28 years, the lack of prestige of the referee has always been one of the stubborn problems that is difficult to eradicate.
Fresh in my memory is the 11th round of the 2000 A-League match between Sichuan and Shanghai, the referee Wang Jingdong ruled that the handball in the penalty area by foreign aid worker Santos was unintentional in the extra time, and this penalty angered Shenhua's Yugoslavian manager Petrović.
The "old gun" anger, directly into the field to take away the ball, and even pushed the referee, if not for the Shenhua assistant coach Jia Xiuquan tight pull, I do not know the old coach will do something so out of character.
After the game, the Football Association of Petrovic's treatment is "understatement", only a one-match suspension, seems to be the assessment of its "cost of crime".
However, the outburst that followed - in the same year, Dalian skipper Kosanovic stormed onto the field of play and chased down referee Zhou Weixin - was meted out by the Football Association with a six-game suspension and a fine of 60,000 yuan.
At that time, there were 26 rounds of the A-League, so such a punishment was already considered harsh.
However, compared with the later Shandong Luneng manager Kuka's punishment, Petrovic and Kosa's "small punishment" can only be regarded as "rain".
In 2015 the 13th round of the Chinese Super League Shandong Luneng and Guizhou Hengfeng after the match, Luneng coaching staff and players and the referee team clashed, Kuka was suspended for seven months for allegedly provoking the referee, with a ruptured corner of the eye, the loss of his departure from Shandong.
Immodesty at the top has made provocative behavior towards referees commonplace in the top leagues, and even more so in the lower divisions.
At the end of the second half of the 2013 China B quarter-final between Shenzhen Fengpeng and Qinghai Senke, visiting player Wang Chi, dissatisfied with the referee's decision, went up to the referee, scolded, insulted and stepped on the referee, and teammates Song Chen and Huang Chao joined in the provocation of the referee.
In the end, the three were banned for eight months for violent behavior.
But the cost of such penalties is clearly not enough to act as a deterrent to players, coaches and club officials who are emotionally out of control.
In the last two seasons of the Chinese Super League, officiating has once again become a high-risk group:
In the first round of the Super League relegation battle between Dalian Ren and Chengdu Rongcheng in January this year, Dalian Ren players and club officials attacked the referee on duty because they were dissatisfied with the referee's decision, and player Yang Hao Yu even hit the referee in the face.
In the end, Dalian was fined 830,000 yuan, eight people were punished to varying degrees, and Yang Hao Yu, who made the move, was banned for one year.
Despite the painful lesson from Dalian, a similar scene played out again six months later:
In the June 28 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 ultimately banned from entering the competition venue for 10 months and fined RMB 160,000 yuan.
Playing from the All-Conference to the Old A-League
From A-A to the Chinese Super League, provocative refereeing behavior has occurred from time to time, but most coaches and players dare not easily cross the line considering the high cost.
However, in youth tournaments, low-grade leagues, amateur tournaments and even women's soccer matches where the system is confusing and the way out is not clear, the cost of provoking the referee is obviously much lower, and hands are thrown at the drop of a hat, which allows violence on the pitch to spread unchecked.
As early as the 1993 National Games soccer preliminaries in Yanji, Shaanxi and Jiangsu battle occurred after the game Shaanxi players pulled up the corner flagpole, the whole field chased the referee farce.
In the end, the Shaanxi leader and each of the six starters were given a 2-3 year suspension.
Sixteen years later, the National Games men's football group A match group stage of the "Beijing-Tianjin derby", and 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 match Zhao Shitong was banned for life, Tianjin team also 8 players and TEDA team official Shi Yong was sentenced to 5 games to 3 years of ban punishment, 6 people are banned in the period of 2 years above, the basic end of career.
In June 2011, after a Chinese B League match between Guangzhou Evergrande II and Sichuan University, Evergrande II player Zhu Pengfei punched and kicked the referee, worse than Zhao Shitong - unsurprisingly, Zhu Pengfei was also given a lifetime ban.
More than Zhu Pengfei, Wang Guodong, who provoked the referee three times in the 2nd round of the National U17 Football League in 2006, also rewrote the record of coaches chasing referee's penalty tickets by himself.
In that match Wang Guodong rushed into the field of play 32 minutes into the first half to verbally abuse and assault the referee, causing the match to be interrupted. After half-time and full-time, he then provoked the 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 the third round of group matches of the fifth Old A-League Stars soccer tournament in November 2016, Hubei Old A-League team and Sichuan Bingugu team played a match in which Hubei's Ma Cheng was dissatisfied with the referee's penalty kick decision and led the charge against the referee on duty.
Shortly after the restart of the game, Hubei bench with the team rushed into the field to try to provoke the referee, both were expelled from the current session of the tournament, and a lifetime ban on participating in the old A game ......
The amateur tournament is so intense, and the referee's status in the players' minds is evident.
There must be zero tolerance for provoking the referee
Provoking the referee is as light as an eight-month suspension or as heavy as a lifetime ban, is the FA's punishment standard too heavy?
Quite the contrary, compared to international soccer, and even sports like basketball and tennis, where disrespectful behavior towards the referee starts with a penalty + a multi-match ban, and going to court for a lawsuit is routine.
In the 31st round of La Liga 2019, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, Diego Costa was sent off by the referee for verbal assault after only half an hour of play, 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 disputes. This obviously only contributes to the players' sense of provocation.
What is the penalty for the more egregious intentional provocation of 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 behavior against a referee in the NBA was 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 NBA players are inevitable, but hitting a referee? Nobody crosses the line.
Compared to the international sports world's "zero tolerance" for provocative referees, the Chinese Super League's distance is clear to see.
