Reporter Cheng Shan reports that in the 2023 season of the Chinese Super League, compared with the same period of the previous two seasons, the controversial penalties and resulting conflicts are obviously more frequent and fierce, and even new terms such as "May Snow" have appeared. The controversy over referees has never disappeared not only in the Chinese league but also in every corner of international football, but the controversial award in the Chinese Super League has suddenly erupted after two seasons of relative quiet, not without a little reason.
In fact, the referee management system and supervisor leadership in recent seasons have been constantly changing: the referee management work for the 2021 season has been transferred to the preparatory team of the Chinese Professional Union; In the 2022 season, the referee management power was redivided and managed by the referee department of the Chinese Football Association, the referee department of the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation and the expert committee, and there were not many controversial points throughout the season; In the 2023 season, although it seems to follow the tripartite condominium model of 2022, the actual managers and the evaluation standards and assessment systems adopted have changed again.
The 2021 season is the most affected conference mode of the epidemic, because the competition is completely closed, resulting in many experienced referees can not leave their work units for a long time to stay in the competition area, so the preparatory team of the Chinese Football Federation has to use some new blood, which is difficult in training and management, and the law enforcement level of many "tender whistles" is indeed difficult to say; In the 2022 season, the Chinese Football Association regained some of the referee management authority and re-selected the members of the expert review team; In the 2023 season, although the management form is the same as the 2022 season, it is still jointly managed by the Chinese Football Association, the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation and the expert review team, but the review mode and standards for controversial penalties have changed, the appeal system has been abolished, and international experts are no longer invited to participate in the review of controversial penalties.
The changes in referee management in these three seasons are obvious, not including the changes in more detailed internal standards and external standards, as well as the changes in the management methods and standards of different supervisors and leaders for the same process, such as the selection criteria and principles of Chinese Super League referees, the requirements and evaluation principles of referees' physical fitness test results, the principles for determining the errors and omissions of referees, the maintenance and guarantee of the reputation and majesty of referees, the adjustment and learning of the differences between the international changes in the scale of punishment and the existing scale in the mainland, etc. These are not paid much attention from the outside world, but they are very important for the referee's work, and once there is a change, there will be a chain reaction to the enforcement level of the entire league.
The physical fitness assessment of referees in the 2021 season was the most stringent in recent seasons, and a number of Chinese Super League referees that year, including the famous Sentinel Guan Xing, failed to pass the physical fitness test organized by the preparatory group of the Chinese Football Federation, and thus missed the league's enforcement work. In the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Preparatory Committee of the Chinese Football Federation is only responsible for selecting referees who are qualified by the Chinese Football Association to enforce different matches and matches, and the selection and assessment criteria are formulated and grasped by new people. In the 2023 season, the referee's head of leadership changed again, and the appeal system was abolished, which is another major change from the previous two seasons.
In such a constantly changing referee management and training work, even the old referees who often appear on the field are constantly adapting. Perhaps there are other reasons for these adjustments that we don't understand, but the results of these changes don't seem so ideal. The law enforcement of referees is a work that requires stability, rigor and objectivity, and stable and consistent standards are of great help to the level of law enforcement on the field of referees, therefore, in order to reduce the dispute over penalties, it is necessary to make the referee's work more institutionalized, process-oriented and transparent, and the management standards are not easily changed due to the change of managers, so that it will be more conducive to the referee's work and the development of the league.
【Suggestion】The Chinese Football Association should fully take back the management of referees, at least in the selection of referees, the selection of referees, the evaluation of referees to hold all the leading power, so that after the problem occurs, it can better trace the roots, otherwise a game blowing penalty has a major dispute, whether it is a problem of selection or dispatch is not clear.
Not only the Chinese Super League, but also for leagues in other countries around the world, the uniformity of referee standards will always be the focus and difficulty of refereeing work. The process of awarding penalties itself is an impossible and subjective judgment and color separation process, similar to the determination of sloppy behavior and reckless behavior, are subjectively determined by the on-field referee, so between different referees, the uniformity of scale and standards is particularly necessary, and some controversial penalties in the Chinese Super League this season have not been unified enough, or the uniformity is doubtful.
When we discuss the unification of scales, we always focus on whether the referee's judgment scale in the arena is unified with each other, but in fact, the scale unity also needs to include the unity of the standards and reward and punishment systems adopted for referee management workers, because the unity of the referee's judgment and punishment scale fundamentally lies in the unity of the manager's requirements and evaluation scale, and whether the referee's judgment and punishment scale is unified cannot be assessed by itself, but needs to be identified and judged by the manager. Therefore, the unity of managers' work ability is more important.
A realistic example is: this season's referee pre-season training has been carried out almost the same, everyone has carried out unified learning and standardization in accordance with the basic standards and scales, but before the start of the game, the invited FIFA referee experts gave a lecture and found that the standards and standards of our league enforcement this season have many things that need to be corrected, among which the rules of handball penalties are relatively complicated. Hypothetical: Before the pre-season referee training begins, it is more professional and effective to ask FIFA experts to verify the enforcement principles and standards we will implement, confirm the content, and then let the referees learn uniformly?
The refereeing rules of the Chinese Super League in the new season clearly state that they must be in line with international standards and encourage normal confrontation and fighting in the game. In fact, each referee's understanding of confrontation and scramble within the normal scale is also different, which is difficult to achieve absolute uniformity, but if you take the same game, such as the two controversial penalties in the match between Dalian and Cangzhou Lions, Cangzhou player Zhao Hongluo put a tackle in the penalty area Bosangzic is not a penalty, Lin Liangming's foul before Dalian people's second goal caused the goal to be canceled, if you look at any of the penalties separately, it makes sense, but if you compare these two penalties horizontally, Is this scale uniform?
Also appeared in Dalian people, in Dalian people's game against Shenzhen team, the second goal scored by Manzoki in the first half, was it the goalkeeper's poor protection of the ball in the confrontation that caused the ball to escape, or the attacker rushed the goalkeeper? Where is the boundary of power for strikers fighting for the ball in the box? This involves how to understand and evaluate "normal confrontation and struggle".
After the first six rounds of the league, many referees were suspended internally or relegated. The current penalty standard is that as long as the referee makes a mistake or misses a judgment, he will bear the corresponding responsibility. But in fact, some mistakes and missed judgments are not caused by the mistakes of the referee alone, and the work mistakes of VAR video assistant referees cannot be ignored: when Shanghai Shenhua played Shandong Taishan at home, the handball missed by Shenhua players was VAR's mistake; When Shanghai Shenhua played against the harbor team, the corner kick wrongly awarded to the harbor team was to assist the referee to raise the flag, but in fact, the referee did not award the corner kick at that time; It was also VAR that dominated the decision not to give Dalian people penalties and cancel Dalian people's goals. Although the final decision-maker is the referee, so his final punishment is also unified in responsibility and power, but this punishment standard and scale is actually not unified with the previous principles, from the corner kick misjudged by Zhang Lei, the referee of the Shenzhen team and Chengdu team that caused the conflict last season, to the corner kick misjudged by Li Haixin to the harbor team this season, these two misjudgments that need to be repeatedly viewed more than ten times to confirm with the video, if the referee is required to be accurate to this extent, it is also unrealistic. After all, the referee is a person, not a precision machine, so in previous years, the referee management work of the Chinese Football Association has clarified the normal error and abnormal range of the wrong and missing judgment standards of the referee's decision, between the blind zone perspective of the assistant referee and the referee's work handover area is unknown, such as the penalty of corner kicks and gateballs, the world can not be 100% accurate, which is a normal value; The real mistake and omission and the scale are not uniform, often the same game on different teams to take different scales, the action on team A is not illegal, put on team B violation, which is obviously beyond the normal error range.
[Suggestion] The concept of scale uniformity is better to list a separate standard, which aspects of scale uniformity, rather than as general as it is now. The unification of the scale is not only the confrontation standard, but also the degree of foul play and the interval scale of the grasp of the standard. In addition, it is best to unify the management department, so that unnecessary communication costs can be eliminated.
Before the start of the new season, the Chinese Football Association abolished the "2022 Chinese Professional Football Club Application Review Measures", which is often referred to as the appeal system, giving the explanation that "this method is contrary to the relevant spirit of international football regarding referee and penalty work." FIFA, out of the maintenance of the seriousness of the referee's work and the respect and protection of the referee, has always strictly prohibited the participants from protesting or appealing the so-called disputed decision, even if there is an obvious misjudgment or omission, although the event organizer will make internal penalties on the responsible referee, the specific result will not be made public, and the score will not be changed due to the referee's error. This reform also has a special background, because over the past few seasons, through publicity and feedback from referee management staff, it has been revealed that an incredible but real phenomenon has been discovered: many coaches and players are really unaware of the latest international penalty rules.
However, the abolition of the appeal system also has two sides, because the implementation of the appeal system is not to blame the referee or change the result of the game, nor to shake the dignity of the referee, but more to have a formal channel and platform to help clubs improve their understanding of the referee's rules, eliminate misunderstandings, maintain the reputation of the referee, and also supervise the rigor of the referee's law enforcement.
This season, whether it is the Premier League or the Bundesliga, in fact, it has begun to follow the "old road" of the first two seasons of the Chinese Super League, if there is a controversial penalty in the game, the Premier League and the Bundesliga officials will give the correct penalty standard as soon as possible, and give the right or wrong of the penalty itself to be characterized, if it is a major misjudgment, the referee will be publicly criticized, fined or suspended for punishment.
The 2023 Chinese Super League schedule is only seven rounds, and the road ahead is long, and if some of the current management loopholes are not corrected in time, the knock-on impact may be greater over time.
【Suggestion】The Chinese Super League needs a public response mechanism, once there is a penalty that causes huge public opinion and controversy, even if the club is not allowed to appeal, the referee management department should send experts to publicly interpret and identify the relevant penalty, which is also conducive to the learning of all referees, and will also help the club, fans and media to better understand the standards and principles of the Chinese Super League, so as to gradually reduce the knowledge blind spot that causes controversy.