Recently, the domestic soccer media Ma Xing disclosed that in the October meeting of the AFC, AFC Deputy Secretary General Anshen Evening Ji expressed his gratitude to the Qatar Football Association for providing support after the cancellation of the Asian Cup, while at the same time expressing his dissatisfaction with the Chinese Football Association's "irresponsible" decision to bring a huge challenge to the work of the AFC.
The referee's decisions against the Chinese Super League side in the AFC Champions League clash between Wuhan Three Town and Urawa Red Diamonds were controversial. Deng Hanwen suffered an unexplained penalty in the first half, while an apparent handball in the opponents' penalty area went unpunished in the second half, with Saudi referee Majid Mohammed Shamrani's enforcement sparking hot debate.
Looking back at the 36-team Asian qualifying tournament for the World Cup, there were a number of controversial calls. In the match against South Korea, Hwang Si-Chan was tripped but Qatari referee Jassim failed to award a penalty kick. And in the second half, the national soccer team's chance to counterattack was interrupted by an injury to Huang Renfan, and the referee quickly interrupted the game, for which Wu Lei received a yellow card warning.
Ma Xing pointed out that the current situation of Chinese soccer is not optimistic, the abandonment of the Asian Cup has brought huge losses to Asian soccer, and unfair penalties may become the norm in the future. He had witnessed the provocative incident of Buriram United at Zhejiang's home ground, and the result of the AFC's penalty could be unfavorable to the Zhejiang team.
In the face of difficulties, Chinese soccer needs to think of a way out. Song Kai, as the president of the Football Association, should restart soccer diplomacy to enhance the status of Chinese soccer in the AFC. Currently, Chinese referee Ma Ning is enforcing important AFC events and can take this opportunity to conduct referee public relations and provide fair enforcement for World Cup qualifiers.
Looking back at the 2018 World Cup qualifying round of 12 tournament in the Asian region, the national soccer team's progression was in doubt thanks to coach Lippi's command and the referee's relative fairness in enforcing the law. Former CFA president Cai Zhenhua has a proven track record of handling such incidents, and Song Kai could learn from his experience.
