Beiqing: Ma Ning and others will officiate the Arabian Cup, and are actually subject to further inspection by FIFA

October 15th, according to Beiqing Sports reports, Ma Ning, Zhou Fei, and Zhang Cheng will participate in the enforcement of the Arabian Cup. This is actually subject to further investigation by FIFA.

The 11th Arab Cup, which is the second Arab Cup co-sponsored by FIFA, will be held in Qatar from December 1st to 18th. It is understood that the FIFA Disarmament Committee decided to select 14 referee groups and 12 video assistant referees to go to Qatar to enforce the law. Chinese international referee Ma Ning will participate in the enforcement of this event together with two compatriots, international assistant referees Zhou Fei and Zhang Cheng.

In the just-concluded fourth-stage playoffs of the Asian region of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, a group of Chinese referees with Ma Ning as the referee participated in the second-round focus match between the Indonesian team and the Iraqi team. Although the Indonesian team publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Ma Ning's penalty due to their elimination, judging from the situation reflected in the video and related materials, there was nothing wrong with the red and yellow cards that Ma Ning showed during the game, and the penalty was relatively fair.

In fact, Ma Ning, Zhou Fei, and Zhang Cheng have been continuously selected by FIFA and the AFC to enforce various major events, which also benefits from their strong work ability and rich law enforcement experience accumulated over the years. Beiqing reporters learned that the three of them have been selected by FIFA and will soon participate in the law enforcement work of the new Arab Cup.

In fact, before this, Ma Ning not only officiated the 2023 Asian Cup finals as the head referee, but was also shortlisted for the Qatar World Cup main game referee lineup. This year, he and Fu Ming were also selected by FIFA to participate in the enforcement of the 2025 Club World Cup. Although Ma Ning serves as the full-time fourth official, FIFA and the AFC have always recognized his law enforcement capabilities. This is actually the reason why he obtained the law enforcement qualification for this Arab Cup.

As we all know, the Chinese international referee team and international video assistant referee (VAR) Fu Ming, composed of Ma Ning, Zhou Fei, and Zhang Cheng, have been included in the candidate lineup of law enforcement referees for the 2026 World Cup finals. Ma Ning and three other people went to Qatar to enforce the Arabian Cup. In fact, they were also subject to further inspection by the FIFA referee department.