Thoughtfulness | A miscalculation is about to withdraw from the Chinese Super League, and the foundation of trust in Chinese football has collapsed

Written by 丨 Horsen

In the 16th round of the Chinese Super League, the controversial penalty of the referee once again occupied the relevant hot search.

In the focus match between Wuhan and SIPG, substitute Wei Shihao was sent off with a red card for verbally taunting and applauding referee Ma Ning.

This kind of irrational behavior on the field should have been severely criticized, but the fans cheered for Wei Shihao, and many media people even tactfully understood this and pointed the criticism at Ma Ning.

In the other side of Nantong Zhiyun's match against Dalian people, a goal by Nantong team Gui Hong was cancelled for offside, but according to the video replay after the game, Gui Hong was still in the local half when he started, and did not cross the center line of the field at all.

After the match, Fan Bing, the chairman of the Nantong team, directly ignored the explosion in WeChat groups and friend circles, angrily denouncing the Chinese Football Association as a "clown", asking "when will the garbage be removed", and even threatening to "withdraw from Chinese football".

But this irrational behavior has once again won the unanimous affirmation and understanding of netizens, and believes that Fan Bing's accusation is completely correct.

All of the above may send a very dangerous signal - the trust mechanism of Chinese football is close to complete collapse, and it is almost impossible to restore it.

01

"Referees are part of the game."

This is a cliché that most fans have heard repeatedly in the mouths of old fans and commentators since they started watching the game.

As a highly physically competitive sport, football requires referees to intervene in the game to ensure the fairness of the event and the personal safety of the players. But referees are people, not machines, and each referee will have his own style and scale standards.

For example, some referees will encourage physical confrontation, so the whistle will be looser, while others who prefer to protect technical players will be harsh; Some referees succumb to on-field pressure, while others are tougher... This is a broad and complex topic.

No matter what type of referee is, there will be some normal laws and phenomena, such as home favors, big score lagging preferences and star preferences, etc., which are defaulted to "off-the-side" within the "acceptable" range, although it is easy to generate some discussion, but basically will not cause much controversy.

However, the premise of all this must be based on mutual "trust".

Whether it is a player, a team or a fan, you need to trust the referee and trust that he will make a fair decision according to the rules; Trust him to enforce the law objectively and impartially when disputes arise on the field; Trust him to have sufficient ability and sufficient willingness to maintain order and fairness in the game in accordance with the rules.

When this trust exists, players focus more on the game itself and less on the referee's decisions, helping to keep the game fair and competitive.

Therefore, trust is the basis for rules and penalties in competitive sports, and good referees often give up the stage to the players and try to be a "stealth" in the game.

So, is there such trust in the current environment of Chinese football?

02

Take the offside ball blown off by Nantong Zhiyun as an example, similar examples are not without in this year's top European competition.

For example, in Brighton's 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, Estupinian's goal was deemed offside by the VAR referee and was cancelled. But the reality is that VAR drew the wrong line - the offside line was positioned with Palace defender Tom Kings, and the actual offside line should be Guei behind Kins.

This is also a very low-level and outrageous miscalculation, but if the owner of Brighton posts a claim that the Premier League garbage is not saved and wants to quit English football, will there be fans who support and identify with him?

I'm afraid not.

You know, the Premier League is not a few jokes about referees, and the story of the "Fantastic Four Blinds" is a classic among the fan group, but... The vast majority of fans and players on the field will recognize the professionalism and authority of the referee.

But why did the same script change completely as soon as it arrived in the Chinese Super League, not only did the fan base not buy it, but even many club executives also hated it?

Nantong Chairman Fan Bing's shelling aside, their opponent Dalian people, its manager Xie Hui has once complained on social media that the referee's penalty is "May snow", and Taishan coach Cui Kangxi, even issued the most severe question to the Football Association: "How much is this game worth?" ”

What is more serious is that the above shelling, the Chinese Super League fan base is almost one-sided in supporting the club, and the disdain for the credibility of the league is really visible.

As mentioned earlier, a controversial penalty can be just a matter of how serious can it be, and why should it be?

But from another point of view, when the matter is already so serious, I am afraid that the accumulation of long-term contradictions has long worn out the trust between the two sides, and at this time, even a little wind and grass may cause explosive consequences.

03

So, how is this trust eroded?

Just a little review of this season's Chinese Super League shows controversial penalties in almost every round.

In the first round of the league, the penalty that was ignored by VAR in the match between Taishan and Shenhua; In the third round, Guoan and Qingdao, Jiang Xiangyou was brought down but did not receive a penalty; In the 4th round of Shanghai derby, the corner kick scored by Wu Lei was basically a wrong judgment; In the 8th round, after the Beijing-Shanghai battle and the Jinlu match, fans clashed over referee issues; In the 9th round, Shenhua's match with Chengdu caused Ma Zhen's boxing to turn red due to a controversial penalty; In the 12th round, the coach of Dalian scolded the referee after the game; In the 14th round, Taishan foreign aid Fellaini once walked out because of controversial penalties...

In this round of matches, Wuhan and SIPG played at a very high level in the first 30 minutes, and the back-and-forth attacks were not lively, showing the demeanor of the top Chinese Super League team.

But then, referee Ma Ning showed 2 reds and 2 yellows to Wuhan Three Towns in 4 minutes, and the situation in the game completely got out of control.

The trigger for the loss of control of the game began with Oscar's unscored penalty. Judging from the playback video, Caron, who grabbed the point, did fall because of the interference of the defender, and this penalty was not much of a problem - but also in this game, Zhang Linpeng's hug against Aziz in the penalty area, but Ma Ning turned a blind eye, which inevitably made people think.

There is also Ren Hang's second yellow card, just looking at the video, it seems that there is no problem with this penalty, but Ma Ning did not show a red card after showing the yellow card, but only took out the red card after showing the yellow card. Obviously, he forgot that Ren Hang already had a yellow card on his back - and this penalty also caused the mentality of the players in Wuhan Three Towns to explode, and made the situation on the field spiral out of control, and almost caused the game to completely lose suspense.

At half-time, almost all fans and media people were talking about the first-half decision and thinking that Manin would definitely find a balance in the second half. Sure enough, Jiang Guangtai was sent off by Zhihong in the 74th minute...

To put it bluntly, the focus battle from the beginning of the beautiful confrontation eventually went out of control, and the referee on duty Ma Ning was almost fully responsible, and his performance was so "eye-catching" that he completely replaced the players as the protagonist of the game.

As a former winner of the Chinese Super League Golden Whistle, Ma Ning has repeatedly officiated various top competitions of AFC and FIFA, and participated in the refereeing of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. It can be said that he almost represents the highest level of professional ability of Chinese referees at present, and it is no exaggeration to call it the best referee in China at present.

But with Manin's instant judgment and control of the game in this game, whether he is "faint" or "black", how can you trust everyone?

What's more, this year's Chinese football once again set off an anti-gambling storm, many players were involved, it was a moment of panic, Gao Hongbo's new official took office, immediately carried out a series of drastic reforms to the referee's work, is to stabilize the league's falling reputation.

But with the intensive controversy of awarding penalties one after another, the patience and trust of fans were constantly exhausted, and finally turned into anger. As a result, conspiracy theories have become extremely marketable, such as "Baoshanggang", "Guoan with Maning, sweeping Argentina", and even the small essay of Taishan after the game in the early years and the "compensation champion" of Wuhan Three Towns last season have been repeatedly mentioned.

03

When the fairness of the game is no longer trusted, when the league no longer has credibility, the consequences are extremely deadly.

The enthusiasm and dedication of fans is the foundation of a league, but once the fans think that the huge enthusiasm they have invested is just a hoax that has long been doomed, that huge sense of insult will become a flammable and explosive powder keg, and the slightest storm in the game will immediately become an explosive chain reaction.

Gao Hongbo abolished the club's post-match appeal system for referees this season, mostly to protect the referees and maintain their authority in this turbulent and eventful autumn, but in the end, because there were too many controversial penalties this season, it seemed like he actively blocked the way of speech and cut off the channels of communication.

In such an environment, the referee is put on the cusp, and the pressure of blowing penalties in every game is full.

For example, the battle between Taishan and Harbour Focus, which Wang Zhe whistled before, was obviously due to excessive replenishment after a stun whistle, which led to the loss of control of the game.

But after the game, the fans' invective and conspiracy theories flew around, from players to referees to football association officials, and even the disciplinary committee, and everyone's reaction was the same - "there is no good person".

This is the lack of trust.

The lack of trust and negative orientation, together are like deflation and consumption downgrade in economics, once entangled, it is a spiral down, and it is extremely difficult to repair.

Once a player loses trust in the referee and no longer trusts the authority and professionalism of the other party, he will want to question and challenge any adverse decision; And in order to stabilize the situation on the field and its own authority, the referee had to make a harsher penalty...

Wei Shihao's mockery and applause, it is difficult to say that there is no reason for this.

Everyone is a mercury in a frying pan, fried at one point.

If you want to repair this trust, what should be done, in fact, there is no need to say much, such as the transparency of capital policies, the separation of management and office, and other old three articles, can not be said, too much, but not interesting.

The key is the current situation of the Chinese Super League - the referee problem has intensified, the fans' emotions have been filled with anger, and the Chinese Football Association has been put on top and in a dilemma, but there is no room for error.

In the short term, it may be difficult to restore this trust.