Recently, Chinese football has once again become the most focused, with the National Olympic U23 Asian Cup group draw into the so-called "Group of Death", and the Wuhan Three Towns AFC Champions League match has been controversial due to an inexplicable penalty. For a time, the voices about the unfair treatment of Chinese football by referees once again filled the field. However, is this a real injustice suffered by Chinese football, or is it a delusional fiction?
The news came out that the source of the unfair treatment of Chinese football by referees was actually because China had previously given up hosting the Asian Cup. Looking back at the 2018 U23 Asian Cup, most countries were reluctant to host it at that time, and the Chinese Football Association chose to host it. However, the result was a big surprise, and the U23 national football team was "hacked out" by the Iranian referee Faghani referee at his own home. The incident is believed to be the trigger for the unfair treatment of Chinese football referees.
However, professionals point out that this view may be exaggerated. At that time, the Chinese Football Association cooperated closely with the AFC, and not only subsequently won the right to host the Asian Cup, but also successfully hosted the first restructured Club World Cup. However, as the situation changed, China chose not to host these two events, and Chinese football did not suffer from the unfair treatment of referees because of this.
Although it has been common for clubs to be unfairly punished in the AFC Champions League in recent years, there are relatively few cases of super-controversial penalties in national competitions. The refereeing problem of the 2018 U23 Asian Cup may be just an isolated incident, and it does not prove that Chinese football has been "played" by referees in the international arena.
According to the analysis, since Zhang Jilong left the AFC, the Chinese Football Association's voice in the AFC has declined significantly. In some ambiguous decisions, the referee did not favor the Chinese team, which may be a reasonable situation. It is worth mentioning that in the era when Guangzhou Evergrande and other teams were "hacked" by referees in the AFC Champions League, Chinese football is at the peak of wealth, and whether it is related to giving up hosting the Asian Cup remains to be thoroughly verified.
Whether Chinese football has really suffered from the referee's ** may not be entirely true. Compared with Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, Chinese football has lost some of its voice in the AFC, but it has not been without results. In national team matches, there are relatively few controversial decisions by referees, and Chinese football may need to look at its own strength.
Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea have had a better run in the Asian Cup, unlike their performances in the U23 Asian Cup. This difference may be due to the fact that the 2022 U23 Asian Cup does not involve an Olympic quota and the two teams will field relatively young players, while the 2024 Qatar U23 Asian Cup will inevitably field the strongest squad when it comes to Olympic qualifiers, which also explains the difference in performances.
Recently, Song Kai, the new president of the Chinese Football Association, took office and met with AFC President Salman. However, the exchange with the AFC's top brass does not seem to have brought good luck to the Chinese Olympic Games, and they have fallen into the so-called "group of death". For Chinese football, whether this is a new round of referees**, or just an accident of the game, remains to be seen.
In the end, the performance of Chinese football in the international arena may not only be a matter of refereeing. If you want to stand out on the world football stage, you need to comprehensively improve your infrastructure and youth training system, and the improvement of your own strength is the key. The controversy over referees may be just a temporary turmoil, and Chinese football still needs to show a stronger level of competition on the basis of its own hard power.