The Football Association has held a referee symposium! Trampling, how to crack the new focus of the new season of the Chinese Super League?

Reporter Chen Yong reports Since the start of the 2025 season, the Chinese Football Association's 8 referee reviews have involved 14 Chinese Super League cases, of which 7 cases involve suspected stampede, accounting for as much as half.

At present, the Chinese Super League has entered the white-hot stage, and the subsequent 9th and 10th rounds of the Chinese Super League have many key battles in the Chinese Super League, such as Shandong Taishan vs. Shanghai Shenhua in the 9th round, Shanghai Port vs. Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng vs. Shanghai Shenhua in the 10th round, all of which are key battles related to the championship. At the same time, the relegation situation is also very close, with the difference between the four teams from 12th to 15th only 2 points, and the bottom of the table Qingdao Manatee is only 3 points behind.

In this context, if there is another controversy involving the penalty of pedaling, it may trigger more public repercussions. For this point, the Chinese Football Association has also noticed this phenomenon and attaches great importance to it, and recently held a referee symposium, and then will also hold a meeting on a unified scale and conduct business discussions.

▲Zeka's red card foul on Wang Gang was evaluated as a serious foul that endangered the safety of the opposing team, and the red card was correct

So far this season, the Chinese Football Association has conducted a total of 8 referee reviews, of which the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 8th referee reviews involve the Chinese Super League, with a total of 14 Super League cases, some of the 14 cases involve fouls in the penalty area, but up to 7 cases involve suspected pedampede, accounting for up to half.

These 7 cases are: missing Jiang Shenglong to step on a serious foul, that is, missing a red card; The penalty for Wang Dalei was correct for stepping on a serious foul; Zhou Dingyang was punished for a serious foul mistake in stampeding, that is, the red card was incorrect; Yang Fan was sentenced to be suspected of stepping on foul errors, that is, not fouling; It is correct to punish Tian Yuda for accidental and unavoidable contact after the ball is not fouled; Li Ke's reckless foul after the tackle was not awarded, but it was not a serious foul; The penalty for Zeka was correct for a serious stampede.

In summary, among the 7 cases, 3 cases were identified as serious fouls for pedaling, of which Wang Dalei and Zeka were correct in their punishment of serious fouls, and Jiang Shenglong was not awarded a serious foul and the penalty was wrong; The other 4 cases were not recognized as serious fouls for pedaling, among which Zhou Dingyang was punished for serious foul errors, Li Ke was reckless for fouls and was not awarded for fouls, Yang Fan was awarded for fouls without fouls, and Tian Yuda was correct in judging not to foul.

▲Jiang Shenglong trampled on Wu Yake and was commented as a red card

In summary, two of the wrongful convictions were failures to accurately identify the difference between serious fouls and reckless fouls, one was a failure to recognize the difference between reckless fouls and non-fouls, and there was also a foul criterion in the middle, and one was a failure to recognize the difference between a foul and no fouls.

This also means that the current referee group of the Chinese Super League has insufficient identification of the five criteria of violent fouls (red cards and penalties, not yet appeared), serious fouls (red cards), reckless fouls (yellow cards), fouls and non-fouls suspected of stampede.

In fact, there were 2 or 3 fouls suspected of pedaling in the last two rounds that were not included in the comments, which also sparked heated discussions among fans. However, the lack of comment actually means that the Football Association recognizes the penalty.

▲ Yang Fan stepped on Issa Caron when he fell to the ground, which was commented as an accidental contact in the scramble, and neither side fouled

The reporter learned in the interview that the Chinese Football Association is highly concerned about the controversial penalties and mistakes and omissions caused by the stampede this season.

A few days ago, the Chinese Football Association held a referee symposium, at which a discussion was held on stampede and other related issues, before this round of games, the Chinese Football Association will also hold a meeting to reiterate the unity of standards, including business discussions and learning.

In fact, there are disagreements within the refereeing community about the penalties related to the stampede. Based on Zhou Dingyang's stampede, the referee on duty determined that it was a serious foul and showed a red card. In the review of the Chinese Football Association, the majority of the members of the review team believed that Chengdu Rongcheng No. 8 was for the purpose of scrambling for the ball, and had the opportunity to touch the ball, stepped on the opposing player because of the late arrival, it was difficult to foresee and dodge, and there was a bend of the knee to avoid causing further injury, the foul did not reach the level of using excessive force or brutal methods, did not constitute a serious foul, and should not be shown a red card.

▲ Zhou Dingyang's red card was judged as a misjudgment

The expression of "majority members" actually means that the referee review team of the Chinese Football Association has not reached a complete consensus. In this case, the Chinese Football Association also turned to FIFA for help, but the opinions of FIFA referee experts are also different.

At the moment, stampede-related penalties are a real problem. For the Chinese Football Association, although a detailed interpretation was made in the review, the interpretation is fragmented after all. It is still necessary for the Football Association to formulate a relatively clear standard from multiple levels such as whether it can be predicted, the size of the force, whether it tries to avoid or reduce the harm, and the severity of the consequences.

More importantly, the referees themselves should be allowed to reach a consensus so that the referees maintain the same standard as possible, which may not be able to settle all disputes, but at least reduce them.