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China's soccer: Referees paying penalty for shady deals

By Tang Zhe (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-02 09:23

XIANGHE, Hebei province - Chinese soccer continues to suffer the fallout from bribery and match-fixing scandals, and that has placed the nation's referees on thin ice as they struggle to regain the public's faith.

"Many good referees are bearing huge pressure now, even from their families," Yu Jing, a Chinese Football Association (CFA) referees instructor, told China Daily on Tuesday during a large training camp held by the CFA which brought together 102 referees from across the nation as well as 63 domestic referee supervisors and instructors.

"I know a referee who decided to quit his job after talking with his family members," said Yu, who added he also feels the proverbial Sword of Damocles hanging over his head.

The credibility of Chinese referees slumped to an all-time low after the police detained four referees on suspicion of match-fixing in March. The quartet includes the "Golden Whistle", Lu Jun, once labeled China's best referee and who officiated in two matches at the 2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan, and international referee Huang Junjie.

The "broken image" of Chinese soccer referees has even cast a shadow over their daily lives, according to Yu, who is also a professor at the Xi'an Physical Education University.

"There are many misunderstandings on campus. I've been told by some of my teaching colleagues that the heads of their schools are not sure if we are appropriate to be teachers due to the tarnished image of soccer referees," he said.

Yu also said it had become more difficult for him to ask for leave to carry out his refereeing duties.

According to a survey launched by Soccer News and web portal sina.com in March, 84.8 percent of Chinese fans believe the sport in China is rife with corrupt officials and 95.9 percent believe more referees will be questioned over bribery issues in the future. Also, 42 percent said they had lost faith in Chinese referees.

"Chinese football must avoid partiality as it tries to rebuild its image," CFA president Wei Di told the camp on Wednesday, shortly after finding out Iran had requested a third-party referee for its friendly against China on Friday in Zhengzhou, Henan province.

"That's very disrespectful to Chinese referees," Wei said.

Apart from bribery scandals, the low standard of officiating is another reason why local referees have lost credibility, said Yu, who was a referee in the Chinese Jia-A League, which later became the China Super League, from 1994 to 1998.

He said the low level was due to a lack of proper training.

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"Referees in the Jia-A era were more professional than the ones working in the China Super League nowadays," Yu said. "We only have a five-day training camp each year. That is not enough. The referees are not confident on the field."

Yu has asked for more help from the CFA to fix that shortfall.

"The 2010 World Cup witnessed the improvement of Asian referees, who benefited from the launch of the Asian referee training plan by the Asian Football Confederation after the 2006 World Cup," he said. "World-class referees undergo similar training intensity to soccer players, and the CFA is planning to implement a series of training courses at the end of this year it hopes will make a difference within three years."

According to Lin Weiguo, a CFA official responsible for referees, China is well behind neighbors Japan and South Korea in its treatment of referees.

"About $5 million and $3 million per year is spent on referees in Japan and Korea respectively, while the CFA only gets 1.5 million yuan ($220,000) to support its referees annually," Lin said.