China News Service Client, Beijing, May 24 (Bian Liqun) "In recent years, Chinese football referees have low credibility, but they have proved themselves through silent efforts and hard work." Talking about three Chinese referees selected as Qatar World Cup referees The list, Liu Tiejun, head of the referee department of the Chinese Football Association, said with emotion to a reporter from Chinanews.com.
This is indeed a silent effort and hard work.
As early as a few years before the World Cup in Russia, the Chinese referee team started a long journey to the World Cup in Qatar.
Daily physical training monitoring, referee theory test, game video case test, English proficiency test... Under the comprehensive assessment of FIFA, referees must not have any shortcomings, nor should they be slack and flawed.
The referee Ma Ning revealed that they have 2 to 3 hours of high-intensity physical training every day.
Before each game, it takes 1 day to study the technical and tactical play, key players, etc. of both sides.
Opportunity always favors the prepared.
The Chinese referee team finally broke through the siege and was selected as the final list as desired.
They rectified the name of Chinese football referees, and also brought some surprises to Chinese football in the trough.
A group photo of Chinese referees of the Qatar World Cup, from left to right are Shi Xiang, Ma Ning and Cao Yi.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
China-Singapore Sports: Three Chinese referees were selected for the Qatar World Cup referee list. What is the significance of this historic breakthrough?
Liu Tiejun: The first two selections were for a single person in a single position. This time it was a referee team. This is an affirmation of the overall improvement of Chinese referees, an affirmation
of the law enforcement level of the selected referees, and an affirmation of the training of referees of the Chinese Football Association. In the future, more Chinese referees will have the opportunity to exercise and demonstrate in the World Championships.
It is believed that the selection of the three Chinese referees will encourage more active referees to work hard, form self-identity, scientifically plan development goals and directions, and also encourage more people to participate in football refereeing.
In recent years, Chinese football referees have low credibility, but they have proved themselves through silent efforts and hard work.
China-Singapore Sports: Is it enough to be selected for this final list?
Liu Tiejun: This selection is enough to prove that the ability and level of the Chinese referee team has reached the top in Asia and the world.
When FIFA announced the list of referees for this World Cup, Mr. Collina, chairman of the FIFA Referee Committee, introduced the relevant situation. He said that the referees selected for this list represent the highest level of referees in the world today.
The Chinese referee team officiates matches overseas.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China-Singapore Sports: What is the selection process like? What kind of inspection will you go through?
Ma Ning:
Before entering the field of inspection of FIFA, we must first pass the screening of the AFC.
In the years before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the AFC has actually started to track and inspect young referees across Asia. After the World Cup in Russia, more than a dozen groups of referees were selected as initial candidates.
At the end of 2018, the AFC determined and reported the first-round shortlist of referees for the Qatar World Cup, which did not include referees who had already enforced the World Cup in Russia.
In 2019, FIFA began to officially pass various competitions and training, conduct a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the referees who entered the first round of shortlists, and selected four groups of referees, plus referees of the right age who have enforced the World Cup in Russia. members, screened into eight groups of lists.
From the beginning of 2020 to the just-concluded 2022 AFC Champions League group stage, FIFA conducted the final round of inspection and evaluation of these eight groups of referees before confirming the final list.
Ma Ning officiates the Chinese Super League.
Image credit: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
China-Singapore Sports: What difficulties will you face during this long inspection cycle?
Ma Ning:
Each round of assessment of candidate referees by FIFA is all-round, including daily physical training monitoring, regular physical tests, referee theory tests, game video case tests, English proficiency tests, and competition law enforcement level assessments. It is required that our candidate referees must not have any shortcomings, slack, and mistakes, and must go all out.
Taking physical fitness as an example, we have 2 to 3 hours of hard training every day.
The standard of physical fitness test is very high. According to the physical fitness test standards of World Cup referees, in the short-distance sprint ability test, six consecutive 40-meter sprint runs should not exceed 5.8 seconds each time, and each interval should not exceed 1 minute.
The interval running test was completed within 15 seconds for a 75-meter fast run, and within 15 seconds for a 25-meter jog, with 40 consecutive cycles.
Ma Ning officiated the Chinese Super League game.
Image credit: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
In addition, FIFA specially assigns technical instructors to track and evaluate our referees for each match, which also includes the national leagues we refer to, and requires us to referee games in accordance with FIFA's concepts and standards, This requires that the candidate referee must go all out to prepare for every game.
Our Chinese referee team will do a lot of pre-match preparations before judging each game, research and analyze the technical and tactical play of both sides, the characteristics of the players and coaches, key players, the historical confrontation of the competition team, various influences Factors and so on, it takes almost a whole day to analyze the game video alone.
In fact, football referees, like everyone else, inevitably make mistakes in life and work, but FIFA's requirements for inspecting referees are very high. Therefore, referees must make fewer mistakes and no major mistakes in refereeing games.
FIFA has arranged such a long inspection period to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the candidate referees, to exclude accidental events, and also to require referees to have a lasting and stable high-level refereeing competitive state.
The selection process was also affected by the epidemic, which also made it more difficult for our Chinese referees to hit the World Cup.
During the inspection period, high-level competitions need to be whistled, and epidemic prevention must be considered at the same time. Long-term competitions abroad have put a lot of mental and psychological pressure on everyone.
In addition, we must maintain our physical fitness during the isolation period. After all, the space in the isolation room is limited and the training equipment is lacking, but we have overcome various difficulties and have always maintained a good physical fitness state.
The Chinese referee team went overseas to officiate the competition.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
China-Singapore Sports: The epidemic has indeed added a lot of difficulties. What kind of support did the Chinese Football Association give you during this selection process?
Cao Yi:
In recent years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the Chinese Football Association has urged the referees to actively participate in the online training of FIFA, UEFA and AFC, and invited top FIFA lecturers to teach the referees of the league online. .
Although we are abroad, we will overcome the problem of jet lag, actively participate in these online learning, and constantly learn the latest law enforcement concepts and knowledge of FIFA.
When we return to China to participate in league law enforcement, the Chinese Football Association will try our best to select our high-level and high-quality competitions to enforce the league. During the national team training and preparations, we will also be invited to enforce the practice games, so that we can High enforcement status can also be maintained.
Shi Xiang:
In the past few years, many tasks such as entry-exit visas and round-trip itineraries have faced unprecedented troubles. All departments of the Chinese Football Association have made every effort to ensure our travel, and also actively coordinated with the AFC, FIFA, and the football association that hosts the event. We have provided great convenience for local and international itinerary reservations in West Asia, including a number of Chinese embassies in West Asia who also gave us a lot of support and care during the law enforcement events abroad.
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