Who Is Ma Ning? Meet the no-nonsense referee Chinese fans call the 'Card Master'

China may be a superpower but it's luck at the FIFA men's World Cup has been poor. It has only qualified once for the FIFA World Cup, back in 2002, and has not secured a place in the finals since.

The 2026 World Cup is yet another edition of the tournament without China, but the Chinese fans have found their hero: the stern referee Ma Ning.

FIFA World Cup referee Ma Ning is now China's sole World Cup hope

Chinese football fans have found someone to hold on to as their representative at the FIFA World Cup 2026. With the men's football team failing to qualify for the tournament yet again, fans have pinned their hopes on referee Ma Ning.

The 46-year-old referee is known for being extremely strict and has gone viral in his country. He made his appearance at this year's World Cup as the central referee for the match between Ecuador and Curaçao on Saturday, making history as the only second Chinese referee to officiate a match at the World Cup.

The Chinese referee made his debut back in 2010 when he presided over a match in the Chinese Super League. He became a FIFA-approved international referee in 2011 and has been the match official in several FIFA tournaments.

In the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, Ma was the assistant referee and the 2026 edition marks his first as the central referee at a World Cup. Currently, he is in Miami where he is accompanied by two more Chinese match officials, referee Zhou Fei and video assistant referee Fu Ming. The three of them officiated the Group E match on Saturday, marking the first time a trio of Chinese officials took charge of a World Cup match.

Ma Ning's social media journey

Without a national team to support, Chinese football fans are now rallying behind Ma Ning who has been documenting his journey at the World Cup on his RedNote account, which is a social media platform similar to Instagram for people in China. He has accrued almost 2 lakhs followers and content about him is going viral in his country.

Ma, who is also a lecturer at the Nanjing Sport Institute, is famous for being strict and merciless. In one of his widely-talked about matches in 2015, he gave out nine yellow cards and three red ones, which made him known as the "card master".

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