In the early morning of 28th Beijing time, Riyadh played against Persepolis in the group stage of the AFC Champions League, and the two sides shook hands with a score of 0-0. Riyadh leads the table with 13 points after five rounds, locking up the top spot in the group one round ahead of schedule and advancing to the knockout round of 16. However, the draw did not quell the controversy, as referee Manin's decision caused dissatisfaction among stars such as Brozovic, Ottavio and Cristiano Ronaldo, and the whistle of the Chinese Super League referee once again sparked heated debates in the international arena.
The AFC attached great importance to the game and appointed a team of Chinese referees led by Ma Ning, who became the second Chinese referee to referee Ronaldo in the AFC Champions League after Fu Ming. At the start of the match, Ma Ning decided to award a penalty kick to Riyadh in the first two minutes of the match. Cristiano Ronaldo was suspected to have fallen down in the penalty area, and Manning decided to award the penalty, but the Persepolis players protested, and Cristiano Ronaldo shook his head continuously, saying "it's not a penalty kick". Manning then went to the sidelines to watch the video replay, and after half a minute changed his decision and said it was not a penalty.
Manning is known as the "Master of Cards" in the league, but his enforcement style is not only red and yellow cards. In this match, he had problems controlling the scene, which led to the dissatisfaction of both teams. In particular, Ottavio suffered a number of infringements by opponents, but Manning chose to turn a blind eye. In the first half of extra time, Ottavio fell to the ground in pain, Manning went forward to inquire, but Ottavio got up to claim a card unsuccessfully. In the second half, Ottavio suffered another infringement, Brozovic expressed dissatisfaction with the penalty, and was shown a yellow card by Manning.
Toward the end of the second half, Ottavio was hit by an opponent and went down on his face while Manning was silent. The whole game, Ottavio started and played the whole game, 14 times against the success of 11, pass success rate of 92.4%, 8 fouls, after the game was named the best player of the game. In this regard, the fans have said: "Ottavio can play the whole game is a miracle", "no injury is a success".
Apart from Manning, Fu Ming has also caused controversy in previous AFC Champions League matches he has enforced. In August, Fu Ming apparently failed to judge a penalty kick correctly in Riyadh Victory's AFC Champions League play-off match against Dubai National, which led to Ronaldo angrily tearing off his captain's armband and shouting a reprimand at Fu Ming.
