On March 9, news came from Iraq that the president of the Iraqi Football Association, Drijar, had recently sent letters to FIFA President Infantino and AFC President Salman, inviting them to go to Baghdad, Iraq, to watch the 9th round of Iraq's home match with the UAE in the 9th round of the Asian Round of 12 in Qatar. The Chinese international referee team with Ma Ning, Cao Yi, Shi Xiang and Fu Ming as members will respectively enforce the game as referees, assistant referees and video assistant referees. As the elite referees that the AFC focuses on cultivating, they need to win favorable conditions for the impact of the Qatar World Cup regular law enforcement qualification through the excellent law enforcement competition of this game.
Manin
Last week, FIFA officially lifted the ban on "the Iraqi Football Association shall not host international matches hosted by FIFA on its home territory" and agreed to host the 9th round of the Round of 12 in Baghdad, Iraq, at the home of Iraqi teams and the UAE. It was also Iraq's first World Cup match after a gap of 20 years.
It is understood that in order to witness this historic moment, Iraqi Football Association President Drijar has invited FIFA President Infantino and AFC President Salman to Baghdad to watch the game.
For the majority of Chinese fans, the biggest concern of this game is actually that 4 Chinese international referees were assigned by FIFA and AFC to enforce the game.
The assignment information shows that in addition to the 4th official from Kuwait, the other 4 main members of the enforcement referee team of the game are all from China. They are Ma Ning, an international referee (referee), Cao Yi and Shi Xiang, international assistant referees, and Fu Ming, an international video assistant referee.
Fu Ming
According to the top 12 standings, the UAE team with 9 points and the Iraqi team with 5 points are temporarily ranked 3rd and 5th in Group A respectively. After the South Korean team and the Iranian team confirmed the "direct access" to the final stage of the World Cup in Qatar in advance, the competition for the third place and the play-off ticket became the final competition suspense of the group. Iraq can only hold back their hopes of qualifying if they beat the UAE in this round. Therefore, this game is undoubtedly the most crucial game in the 9th round of the round of 12.
In fact, prior to this, the Chinese international level referee team had participated in the law enforcement work of the 4 rounds of the 12 rounds. Among them, Maning, as the referee, worked together to help referees Shi Xiang and Cao Yi to enforce the first round of the UAE team vs Lebanon team, the second round Iraq team vs Iran team, the 5th round South Korea team vs the UAE team, and the 6th round Syria team vs Iran team match. Zhang Lei and Shen Yinhao, as the 4th official, participated in the law enforcement work of the first two and the last two matches of the above four rounds of competitions respectively. Fu Ming served as a video assistant referee for two of the matches. During the interval between the rounds of the 12 rounds before and after the start of the round of 12, Ma Ning, Shi Xiang, Cao Yi and Fu Ming also enforced the AFC Champions League matches many times, and Fu Ming also enforced some events of the Tokyo Olympic Football Tournament last summer. Four Chinese international referees can be assigned to enforce the match between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, which also proves that their ability and pre-12 law enforcement performances have been highly recognized by FIFA and AFC.
More importantly, these four Chinese referees are currently among the candidates for law enforcement referees in the Qatar World Cup. If Infantino and Salman can be present to watch the game, then this game is also a good opportunity for the representatives of outstanding Chinese international referees to show the level of law enforcement to the heads of international football organizations. There was no reason for the 4 referees to "mess up" the enforcement effort.
Cao Yi
After confirming that they had received the notice of assignment, several Chinese and international referees recently began to implement various preparations before leaving the country. The calendar shows that the match between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates will be played on March 24, local time. The Chinese men's football team and the U23 national football team plan to fly from Haikou to Dubai, United Arab Emirates by charter flight on March 17. Therefore, the Chinese Football Association has considered assisting several referees to visit abroad, that is, considering arranging for the four of them to travel west with the two national teams. After arriving in the UAE, transfer to Iraq to enforce the law.
However, the round of 12 is a major competition sponsored by FIFA and co-organized by AFC, and the selection of referees and their travel arrangements should theoretically be implemented by FIFA and AFC. Generally speaking, the referee who enforces a world preliminary tournament will arrive at the venue at most 3 days before the match, so whether the four Chinese referees can finally go to West Asia with the national football team is still to be finally confirmed by all parties.
It is worth noting that after the regular season of the Group Stage of the Round of 12, the two groups of 3rd place teams will also play a play-off, and the winner will participate in the intercontinental play-offs with the 5th place team in the South American Qualifiers. The matches were confirmed to be held in Qatar, so several Chinese and international referees may also participate in the enforcement of the qualifying matches after completing this round of law enforcement work. Since the east Asian regional competition of the new AFC Champions League will be held in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia from April 15 to May 1, Manin and four others may also participate in the enforcement of the competition. If so, they will be absent from the first stage of the new season of the Chinese Super League.
Shi Xiang
In fact, due to the impact of the epidemic, 4 Chinese international referees have been stationed abroad for a long time, thus facilitating the law enforcement of various international competitions. As a result, they miss the enforcement of the vast majority of professional events in the country. For example, Fu Ming did not participate in any 1 Chinese Super League law enforcement last year, and Maning only enforced 1 Chinese Super League match and 1 key battle in the Chinese First Division. In addition, for a long time abroad, they gathered less with their families and sacrificed many personal interests. And if you can get the opportunity to enforce the World Cup, then these efforts and sacrifices are worth it.
It is understood that the current competition within the AFC refereeing circle for Qatar's World Cup law enforcement qualifications is particularly fierce. Normally, there are 5 international referees (who can be competent referees and 4th official) who represent the AFC in the enforcement of the World Cup. Manin competes fiercely with well-known elite referees such as Jassim (Qatar), Hassan (UAE), Fagani (Iran), Ryuji Sato (Japan), Bis (Australia) and more. The remaining Chinese referees also have to face competition. At the moment, for the 4 of them, the most important thing is to continue to maintain a normal standard of enforcement in various competitions, while ensuring that they are in good physical condition.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao