Wei Di: Chinese officials deserve Iran snub
Reuters - Thursday 02 September 2010, 08:28
BEIJING - Iran's demand for a neutral
referee for their friendly against China this week is
disrespectful but local match officials only have themselves to
blame, according to China's football chief Wei Di.
Three top Chinese referees were arrested for their
involvement in a major matchfixing scandal earlier this year
and Wei said he thought that was behind Iran's request for a
non-Chinese to officiate the match in Zhengzhou on Friday.
"It is not too odd in principle, but objectively it shows
their lack of respect for Chinese referees," Wei told a
training camp for referees in Hebei on Wednesday in speech
reported by the Xinhua news agency.
Wei was brought in to clean up Chinese football after his
predecessor Nan Yong and a strong of other top Chinese Football
Association (CFA) officials were arrested for corruption.
One of the referees arrested in March was 2002 World Cup
official Lu Jun, who had been known as the "golden whistle" in
contrast to the corrupt "black whistles" who had long been
suspected of fixing matches over the last decade.
Wei conceded that many guilty referees had fixed matches at
the behest of CFA officials and so earned the nickname
"official whistles" but said that must now stop if they were to
gain credibility with fans and players.
"The CFA must start within itself to eliminate the
'official whistle'," he said. "And the referees must resist the
pressure of 'official whistle'. A referee must immediately
report to the CFA as soon as any CFA official makes such
request."
Wei, who has declined Iran's request, then called on
domestic referees to deliberately make calls against Chinese
players in matches against other countries.
"In international games, the Chinese referees should be more
strict to China, which could improve the team's mentality in a
negative situations," he said.
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