An expat referee and his experience of Chinese football

In a country where the number of football fans is in the hundreds of millions, the popularity of football is always palpable. Yet one unique side of Chinese football is that the referees are just as famous as the players. The reason is not only down to them making or breaking results on the pitch, but also corruption controversies that follow them off the pitch. Metro Beijing spoke to a 36-year-old expat referee named Nasiar Abdinasir, from Somalia, who kindly shared his thoughts on the matter.

Almost every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Abdinasir is referee for amateur football matches in Beijing. He has been doing this for 10 years, since he graduated from Beijing Sport University with a degree in sports. During the day, he is a sports teacher in an international school in town. Being a referee is his part-time job that he does for fun and for a little bit more pocket money.

As a person who can speak both Chinese and English, language is not a barrier for him to judge a football match here. However, no referee is perfect. "Occasionally I made wrong judgment calls," he said. "But I would tell the players that I made a mistake after the match and they would understand."

"Since I am responsible for judging amateur matches instead of professional ones, I don't have to have a license," he said. Amateur referees though face similar pressures to professional referees. A referee needs to not only confidently make decisions on the spot, but needs to accept responsibility later on for the decisions. "In order to be a good referee, you need many skills, including self-confidence," Abdinasir said. "Whenever you make a decision you have to stick with it and let the players know that you are the decision-maker, not anybody else on the field."

He also pointed out that a referee is a mediator who needs to diffuse potential arguments between sides that erupt on the field. And people can get pretty angry, with Abdinasir often caught in the line of fire. "Some would threaten to slap me," he said. "These people are not satisfied with a decision and they try to find any way to vent about their own failure. But as a referee you need to understand them."

Like other football fans, Abdinasir's reaction to the corruption of football in China has been shock, especially when it comes to the case of Lu Jun, who is one of his favorite referees. "The first time I found out that the Chinese government punished the referees of the Chinese Football Association [CFA] I didn't know what was going on," he said. "I was shocked and sorry for Chinese fans, who still pin a lot of hope on the growth of Chinese football. So I think the government did a good job on this and football will hopefully improve."

Abdinasir's job allows him to engage with the other Chinese referees of all levels from which his understanding about this field is formed. In his view, there are several possible causes of the corruption phenomenon in China. "I think the situation now is getting better than before, which is partially because the official referees earn better salaries than in the past," he said. "Now the referees in China are getting paid more than in Lu Jun's time."

In addition, he believes that with the CFA bringing foreign referees to China, Chinese referees will feel more pressure from this competition. "Now there are more referees than there used to be in China. Those who intend to remain in the field understand that if they don't do a good job then their credibility will be affected and they will be replaced by others," he added.

Currently there are less than 100 expat referees in China. Abdinasir hopes more people will come and the standards here will be raised, since in his words China is his second home.