Referee and Soccer Fans Humiliated Amid 5 Yellow Cards

Find SNS Account and Receive 'Malicious Comments' Bombardment

The Chinese referee who gave a 'flurry of yellow cards' to the South Korean national football team in their first match of Group E in the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup is facing humiliation from netizens. This is because some football fans have flooded his social media service (SNS) with critical comments. Some of the comments have been pointed out as excessive.

On the afternoon of the 16th, an Instagram account presumed to belong to Ma Ning, a referee from China, was receiving real-time comments from South Korean football fans. The number of comments on the account has already exceeded 6,000.

Referee Manning's Instagram account Photo by Instagram

The comments were mostly written in Korean. The content of the comments claims that Ma Ning made biased decisions by issuing a flurry of warnings to the South Korean team players during the previous day's match. Protest responses included statements such as "Because of you, the Korean players had to play their worst game," "We hope other matches are fair," and "A clear violation of fairness." Some netizens also posted hateful remarks, causing disapproval.

Referee Ma Ning gave yellow cards to five South Korean players in the Korea-Bahrain match held the previous day. By the 30th minute of the first half, Park Yong-woo, Kim Min-jae, and Lee Gi-je received warnings, and in the second half, Jo Gyu-seong and Son Heung-min were also given yellow cards.

Some football fans were angry because Ma Ning appeared not to actively issue warnings to Bahraini players. In particular, they pointed out that despite Bahrain attempting dangerous tackles during the match and one player kicking Son Heung-min's thigh, Ma Ning did not show a yellow card.

Meanwhile, it is not uncommon for referees of a third nationality to face humiliation in national-level sports matches. During the 2022 Qatar World Cup match against Ghana, referee Anthony Taylor faced backlash for not recognizing a corner kick opportunity given to South Korea and blowing the final whistle, leading to controversy over bias.