In the first match of the 2023 Chinese professional league, Wuhan Three Towns defeated Shandong Taishan to win the Super Cup, which is also the first time in the team's history. In addition, the chief referee Ma Ning, who enforced the match, and the fourth official Fu Ming, while Gao Hongbo and Sun Wen, the two vice presidents of the Football Association, revealed the ultimate suspense of the outside rumors being investigated.
In the past half month, the anti-corruption and anti-black storm in domestic football has reached a climax, with Du Zhaocai's investigation, the highest level of leadership within the football association has been arrested, but fans have called on the General Administration of Sports to investigate the domestic referee circle, so Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhang Lei and many international referees have become the main targets of suspicion.
Recently, the General Administration of Sports sent leaders to the Chinese Football Association and set up a temporary working group to quickly carry out various tasks, including determining the opening of the new season and announcing the specific schedules of all levels of the league, and putting Gao Hongbo in charge of the refereeing department and competition department of the football association.
In the end, Gao Hongbo appointed Ma Ning, Fu Ming and Wang Di as the main referee team to participate in the enforcement Super Cup match, of which Ma Ning alone enforced the law, Fu Ming served as the fourth official, and Wang Di served as the VAR referee. Now that the Super Cup has ended successfully, the referee team led by Ma Ning has successfully completed the enforcement work, which has also been recognized and affirmed by the media and fans.
In addition, at the Super Bowl award ceremony held at 10 p.m., the referee team led by Ma Ning came on stage to receive the award, which has fully explained that he was not involved in the case and achieved a clear conscience. In fact, Ma Ning is currently the referee with the highest level of law enforcement in China, and FIFA is also very important and has the opportunity to enforce the 2026 World Cup alone.
Gao Hongbo and Sun Wen, who attended the Super Cup award ceremony, made their first public appearance during the anti-corruption and anti-corruption storm in domestic football, and the audience applauded them, which was a recognition of the two Chinese football stars.
After Du Zhaocai, Chen Jiayuan, and Liu Yi were investigated, Gao Hongbo and Sun Wen became the only remaining current leaders within the Football Association, and have been reused by the General Administration of Sports, become members of the temporary working group, and have been appointed as the main persons in charge of other departments.
Today, the General Administration of Sports also held the 2023 Party Style, Clean Government Construction and Anti-corruption Work Conference, including a summary of this anti-corruption and anti-gang crime sweep in the sports world, in addition to naming and criticizing Hu Guangyu, Liu Aijie, Du Zhaocai, Chen Jiayuan, Yu Hongchen, Liu Yi, Li Tie, Wang Xiaoping, Chen Yongliang, Huang Song, and Dong Zheng, and also specifically praised six responsible comrades of departments and units, emphasizing that they have withstood tremendous pressure and firmly fought against unhealthy tendencies.
From the Football Association, including Gao Hongbo and Sun Wen, it showed that the General Administration of Sports had investigated clearly and proved that Gao Hongbo and Sun Wen had no problems at all, and the official praised them by name.