The national football team is out of the national whistle, and the AFC officially announced that the Chinese referee team will enforce the Asian Cup knockout round
On the evening of January 26, local time, in the early morning of the 27th, Beijing time, the AFC Referee Committee officially confirmed the referee arrangements for the first four matches of the 1/8 finals of this Asian Cup. The four-member Chinese referee team with Ma Ning as the referee confirmed the match between Qatar and Palestine in the 1/8 finals at 7 p.m. local time on January 29 at the Doha Bay Stadium. It means that the law enforcement work of this group of Chinese referees in the group stage of this Asian Cup has been fully recognized by the AFC. In the context of the Chinese team's dismal exit from the group stage, several Chinese referees advanced to the knockout stage of this Asian Cup, which actually saved face for Chinese football to a certain extent.
With the group stage ending on January 25 local time, the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup will all be produced. As is customary, the AFC will also select nearly half of the referees from the 70 referees selected for the tournament to stay in Doha and participate in the enforcement of the knockout rounds. In other words, about half of the referees went home after the group stage, either because of unsatisfactory performance in law enforcement or because of lack of law enforcement experience. The competition between the Asian Cup, or the AFC's registered referees, is no less intense than the competition on the field between the teams in the Asian Cup.
Although the Chinese team was eliminated from the group stage competition due to an unprecedentedly poor record and ended the cup journey ahead of schedule, the law enforcement performance of the four Chinese referees in this tournament was highly recognized by the AFC referee committee. Referee Ma Ning, as one of the referees selected for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, participated in the enforcement of 4 group stage games. Among them, he was the main player in the first round of the South Korean team vs Bahrain team. Subsequently, he officiated three consecutive matches as the fourth official, and referee Fu Ming was one of the four Chinese referees and even one of the referees in the Asian Cup with the highest attendance rate. He has been involved in a total of 6 group stage enforcement games. Including 1 main whistle, 3 video assistant referees, 1 assistant video referee, Zhou Fei and Zhang Cheng participated in 4 and 3 group stage law enforcement as assistant referees respectively.
According to the usual practice, the AFC Adjudication Committee will summarize the enforcement work to varying degrees after each match day and each stage of the Asian Cup. Generally speaking, the AFC refereeing committee will not directly praise or criticize a referee by name for his or her excellent enforcement or serious mistakes. However, some of the law enforcement cases of Ma Ning and Fu Ming in the various autonomous outposts are still as typical cases and have been praised by the AFC Adjudication Committee. For example, Ma Ning's yellow card for showing the South Korean team Park Yongyu (hitting the opponent's player with a knee) and Son Heung-min (fake fall in the penalty area) to the South Korean team during the game between South Korea and Pakistan has been particularly affirmed.
According to the information confirmed by the AFC Adjudication Committee on the evening of January 25, local time, Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhou Fei, and Zhang Cheng were collectively selected to officiate the match between Qatar and Palestine in the 1/8 finals. Compared with the strong dialogue between South Korea and Saudi Arabia in the same round, the match of the host team is also quite interesting. The AFC's selection of the Chinese referee team to officiate the game is also another recognition of their law enforcement capabilities. It is worth noting that Hani, who is currently the chairman of the AFC adjudication committee, is a Qatari. This also seems to reflect from the side that the adjudication committee has great trust in several Chinese referees.
With the announcement of the referees' performance information for the first four games of the 1/8 finals, the referees involved in the enforcement of these four games have also been confirmed to be retained. It means that 4 Chinese referees have also successfully advanced to the law enforcement stage of the knockout round of this Asian Cup. For Ma Ning, Fu Ming, Zhou Fei, and Zhang Cheng, who have been on the key law enforcement stage of major events such as the Qatar World Cup, the opening match of the Club World Cup, and the 3rd and 4th finals of the U17 World Cup, just "advancing to the knockout round" is not the highest goal of their law enforcement work in this Asian Cup.
According to the selection information, the main whistle on the 29th 1/8 finals Iraq team VS Jordan team is the famous whistle Fagani from Iran, the main whistle is the Australian team VS Indonesian team on the 28th is the UAE whistle Hassan, and the main whistle is the Tajikistan team VS the UAE team on the afternoon of the 28th The game is Yusuke Araki from Japan.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Yun