With the 2022 AFC Champions League West Asia Region group stage coming to an end in Saudi Arabia on the evening of April 27th local time, our world-class referee team, led by Ma Ning and Fu Ming and assisted by Cao Yi and Shi Xiang, completed their enforcement mission at this stage in the early morning of April 28th Beijing time. However, they did not immediately embark on the road home, but will most likely continue to accept the instructions of the AFC, respectively, to the U23 Asian Cup and the AFC Cup matches, in order to fight for the Qatar World Cup law enforcement qualification, to start the final sprint.
On the evening of April 27th and early morning of April 28th Beijing time, the six rounds of the West Asia Region group stage matches were successfully concluded in Saudi Arabia. In the sixth round of Group E matches in Dammam, Chinese world-class referee Fu Ming was in charge, assisted by three Korean referees. In the Group D finale, another Chinese referee, Ma Ning, officiated, with Shi Xiang and Cao Yi as assistant referees.
In fact, these four Chinese referees, as the AFC's key training elites, have been regulars in various important AFC tournaments (including national team and club tournaments) in recent years. Taking the 2021 season as an example, they have enforced the AFC Champions League, AFC Cup, World Qualification Round of 40 and Round of 12 tournaments in different roles (referee, assistant referee, fourth official and video assistant referee). Fu Ming also enforced the Tokyo Olympics men's and women's soccer matches as a video assistant referee last year, as well as the women's soccer club tournaments introduced by the AFC. Their performance was also highly recognized by the AFC.
Earlier this year, the AFC asked the CFA about the feasibility of several Chinese world-class referees going abroad to enforce the AFC Champions League and other tournaments, and eventually received a positive response. Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Shi Xiang and Cao Yi also eventually arrived in West Asia, and have enforced some of the important matches of the 12-team tournament and the just-concluded group stage of the AFC Champions League West Asia Region.
This season, they have also continued their excellent enforcement momentum. Fu Ming, for example, has taken part in a total of five AFC West Asia group stage matches, three of which he officiated and another two as fourth official. Manning and the two Chinese world-class assistant referees had roughly the same number of matches. The main reason why they split their enforcement duties in the sixth round was because the group stage finale of the same group kicked off at the same time and there was a higher demand for high-level referees.
So, will these four Chinese world-class referees return to China immediately after completing their enforcement mission in the group stage of the West Asia Region of the AFC Champions League and devote themselves to the enforcement work of the new season of the Chinese Super League? It is understood that despite being in West Asia, they overcame the difficulty of jet lag and participated in the professional league referee training organized by the CFA from April 24th to 28th. However, after completing their enforcement mission for the AFC Champions League group stage, it is likely that they will not return to China immediately, but will wait for the latest instruction from AFC to continue their enforcement for the U23 Asian Cup main round and the AFC Cup (club tournament).
The schedule shows that the final stage of the fifth U23 Asian Cup will be held in Uzbekistan from early May to May 19th. Considering that China has been implementing stricter rules on epidemic prevention and quarantine of people entering the country, it is highly probable that the AFC will continue to assign several Chinese world-class referees to enforce various other sequences of matches hosted by the AFC, taking into account the difficulties they may face during their world journey. As they are currently preparing for the final stage of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the AFC does not intend to ask them to return to the country immediately to enforce domestic professional leagues from the perspective of helping them do a good job in enforcing world competitions. Of course, if they want to be on the stage of the World Cup final round, they still need to continue to maintain their excellent law enforcement standard and physical condition. For them, the next law enforcement work is the "sprint stage" to decide the fate of the game.
