Twenty years later, Asian soccer is making waves again, but this time the focus is not on the national team, but on the refereeing community in Chinese soccer.
Yes, this is not an illusion. This time, it is not the Chinese national team that will lead Chinese soccer out of Asia, but our referee team. Recently, FIFA announced the list of referees for the final stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, and Chinese referees Ma Ning, Cao Yi, and Shi Xiang stood out, with Ma Ning being honored as the main referee, while Cao Yi and Shi Xiang were selected as assistant referees.
The induction of the three is significant.
First of all, they are not only expected to renew the history of Chinese referees, but may even create new history. Chinese referees last appeared in the final stage of the World Cup match, but also back to 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup: Lu Jun has enforced Croatia against Mexico, Poland against the United States of America two games; 2010 South Africa World Cup, Mu Yuxin shortlisted assistant referees, but did not get the opportunity to enforce the law. These two "shortlisted", Chinese referees are "alone", which to a certain extent limits their opportunities for law enforcement, especially assistant referees like Mu Yuxin.
According to the World Cup practice, in order to facilitate on-field communication and coordination, FIFA prefers to arrange in the same game from the same country and region of the referee and assistant referee collocation. Therefore, this year's World Cup in Qatar, three Chinese referees compared to the previous "team advantage", they are expected to realize the assistant referee and even the Chinese referee group in the World Cup final round debut.
Secondly, Chinese referees were able to be selected this time and needed to overcome more difficulties than in the past.On January 10, 2019, Maning became the first Chinese referee to enforce an Asian Cup match in 12 years when Qatar played Lebanon in Group E in the first round of the Asian Cup group stage. After that, due to the impact of the epidemic, in the World Cup referee investigation period stipulated by the World Football Federation, Chinese referees temporarily bid farewell to the world stage for up to 15 months, until April 2021 to reappear in the AFC Champions League. After that, Ma Ning, Cao Yi and Shi Xiang were stationed abroad for long periods of time to ensure their presence in all major AFC tournaments, which enabled them to be selected for the World Cup refereeing list with their outstanding performances.
During their time abroad, the three Chinese referees practiced until they became dehydrated at one point in the heat of West Asia to ensure the quality of their training and fitness. Last year, they participated in the Elite Seminar for Candidate Referees for the Qatar World Cup. Maning revealed that during the seminar, there were theory tests, video case tests, physical fitness tests and practical exercises every morning, and they practiced for several hours every day, with great intensity and density, and they also insisted on practicing during the short isolation period when they returned to their home country, in addition to giving each other tips to overcome the problems of diet and sleep. It was with such diligent preparation that the three referees beat a number of strong opponents, especially Manning, who qualified for the World Cup only after defeating famous referees from Bahrain, Jordan and Japan.
The selection of Chinese referees, especially Ma Ning, is also worthwhile for Chinese fans to reevaluate and revise some of the stereotypes that Chinese referees have long held. Ma Ning is known for his toughness in enforcing the Chinese Super League, having made four penalty kicks in a single game, and it is not uncommon for him to be issued a dozen cards and sent off two or three people, although the vast majority of them are not misjudgments, but it still makes him a "thorn in the side of many fans", and he has been subjected to all kinds of verbal attacks, and even the "checking of papers", which is beyond the conventional scale. Thesis" this kind of beyond the conventional scale of the attack.
Manning's ability to stay tough for a long time actually shows his full confidence in his own professionalism; he has "offended" almost every team, which to a considerable extent shows his professional attitude of remaining neutral and treating everyone the same. In comparison, the last appearance of the World Cup of China's "golden whistle" Lu Jun is far less, because he accepted bribes for a long time in 2013 in China's soccer anti-corruption case behind bars, even if the sentence was commuted in 2014, but also has been lifelong prohibited from continuing to engage in the soccer profession.
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, while constantly and positively 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.
