Super League Play-offs: Limited Resources, FA Cup 'Scramble for Referees'

Reporter Cheng Shan reported that on January 5, the official announcement of the Chinese Super League China League One play-off schedule, Zhejiang and Qingdao, Dalian and Chengdu Rongcheng, will play a two-legged knockout match on January 8 and January 12 respectively. Shandong Taishan and Shanghai Haigang will also play a final in the FA Cup final on January 9. 5 games, 6 teams, every minute of any game, is related to the fate of the participating teams, and it is bound to compete fiercely. In two major competitions, the selection of referees is extremely important. What is a little different this season is that the referee selection work of the Super A and B professional leagues is responsible for the preparatory team of the China Football Federation, and the refereeing work of the FA Cup and the Chinese Crown is the responsibility of the Referee Department of the Chinese Football Association.

The refereeing lineup for the FA Cup final has been determined, with Wang Zhe as the referee, Wang Dexin and Shi Xiang as assistant referees, Zhang Lei as the fourth official, video assistant referee (VAR) by Shi Zhenlu, and Tang Shunqi as VAR assistant referee. Until the afternoon of January 5, the referee of the Super League play-off has not been finalized.

In this season's Chinese Super League, the most stable referees are Wang Zhe, Li Haixin, Zhang Lei, Shi Zhenlu, Tang Shunqi, etc., who have enforced most of the key games in the Chinese Super League, Wang Zhe has punished the first round of the Guangzhou derby, Li Haixin has played the first round of the Shanghai derby, and Zhang Lei has punished the first round of the second stage of the battle between Taishan and Haigang, all of which successfully completed the game and the penalty is undisputed.

The above 5 referees, 4 of them will go to Chengdu to enforce the FA Cup final, so who will blow the super league play-offs?

In the white-hot competition in the final stage of the relegation group, Wang Zhe, Li Haixin, Shi Zhenlu, Tang Shunqi and other referees in the Suzhou Division withstood the pressure, and there were no key mistakes and omissions in the final stage and no major controversy, especially they were more familiar with the playing styles of the Qingdao team and the Dalian renren team that were about to participate in the relegation war, and Wang Zhe and Zhang Lei had repeatedly enforced the key battles of the Chinese First Division this season, and were familiar with the playing methods and rhythms of the Chinese League One teams. The FA Cup final is equivalent to four experienced referees, especially Tang Shunqi, a newly promoted international referee, as a VAR assistant referee, which is somewhat wasted resources.

There are 4 games in the Super A play-offs, and at least two referees must be prepared for each game to prevent once a referee has special circumstances that cannot be enforced, another referee can be on top, and to some extent, the demand for the referee in the Super A play-off is greater. The main reason why the Referee Department of the Football Association transferred Tang Shunqi away is that Tang Shunqi belongs to the Chengdu Football Association and does not have the qualifications to enforce the match between Dalian and Chengdu Rongcheng, but in fact, Tang Shunqi has the qualification to enforce the law in the match between Zhejiang and Qingdao. Shi Zhenlu also has no problem of avoidance. Therefore, it seems more appropriate to leave at least one of the four referees Wang Zhe, Zhang Lei, Tang Shunqi and Shi Zhenlu for the Super League play-offs, especially Tang Shunqi's VAR assistant referee, which is the job that the assistant referee can do.

This season, due to the epidemic, the "foreign whistle" has completely disappeared from the Chinese Super League, and many domestic referees have been fully trained and law enforcement opportunities, and the progress is very obvious. A large number of excellent referees have emerged in the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First Division and the Chinese Second Division, who have accumulated rich experience in enforcing the super A and Second Divisions. With the efforts of these referees, a series of competition tasks such as the Relegation of the Chinese Super League Championship, the Fourth Stage of the Chinese First Division, the First Division of the Chinese Second Division, the First And second division play-offs, and the Second Champions Play-off have been successfully completed. The absence of several famous whistles does not mean that no other referee can complete the law enforcement task of the Super League play-off, but from the perspective of the rationality of the referee's selection, not to waste any resources and let all talents get the most reasonable use, which should be the main direction that the two referee management departments should increase their efforts to communicate in the future.