Six o'clock in the afternoon! The AFC officially announced a major decision: Ma Ning and Fu Ming were promoted**.
As we all know, Qatar has advanced to the final stage of the World Cup. Hosts Qatar and Jordan will meet in their final match for the final victory in this Asian Cup. At present, the focus of Chinese fans is not on which player will win the championship, but on whether the Chinese referee can be the final referee of this World Cup.
And the things that the fans are concerned about have finally come to fruition. On February 8, Beijing time, at four o'clock in the evening, the judges of the AFC announced their last list of referees. The Chinese Football Association invited the last referee of the Asian Cup, Ma Ning and Fu Ming as the referee and video deputy referee respectively.
At the Qatar Asian Games, Chinese referees received a lot of attention, Ma Ning and Fu Ming have been promoted at three levels, and they have been highly praised from the qualifiers to the final match.
The reason why China was the referee of the World Cup is also because both teams are West Asians.
In fact, in the eyes of Chinese referees like Ma Ning, the enforcement of the game also reflects the high standards of China. Ma Ning's several key goals in the game, such as Son Xingmin's fake drop in the game, and the penalty in extra time, were so clean.
Therefore, the two teams in the World Cup are both from West Asia, which is one of the important factors, but the quality of Chinese referees is recognized as the most important. If China's AFC refereeing team can do this well, players like Ma Ning will be retained and they will be elected to referee the 2026 tournament.
As far as China is concerned, the use of Chinese referees in the World Cup has also brought an opportunity for the revival of Chinese football. When Ma Ning and Fu Ming return to the league, their main role will improve the quality of the game throughout the league. Only when the refereeing ability of the league is improved and Chinese football is in line with international standards, the future of Chinese football will be brighter.