Ma Ning (born 14 June 1979) is a Chinese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He has been a full international referee for

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

since 2011. He is a teacher of Wuxi Vocational and Technical College. On 9 May 2015, Ma drew widespread controversy as he sent off 3 Shenhua players in a Shanghai derby between

Shanghai SIPG Shanghai Port FC (), previously named Shanghai SIPG, is a professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Pudong, Shanghai, and their home sta ...

and

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua F.C. () is a Chinese professional football club that participates in the Chinese Super League under license from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The term ''shen hua'' literally translates as "the Flower of Shanghai" in ...

in the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

, the game finished 5-0 to SIPG. On 23 February 2019, it was announced that Ma Ning had been hired by CFA to become one of the professional referees in China. On 19 May 2022, Ma was selected as one of the 36 referees for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

, becoming the second Chinese referee to achieve this since Lu Jun in 2002. On 21 August 2022, during a

game between Wuhan Yangtze River and Henan Songshan Longmen, Ma was deliberately knocked over by Songshan Longmen striker Henrique Dourado, who was subsequently sent off for violent conduct. The game finished 2-2. Five days later, the Chinese FA announced a 12-month suspension to Dourado, which was the severest penalty in the history of Chinese Super League.

AFC Asian Cup

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Ning Chinese football referees Living people 1979 births People from Fuxin 2022 FIFA World Cup referees AFC Asian Cup referees