Chinese fans rally behind referee Ma Ning at World Cup

MEXICO CITY: With China absent once again from the World Cup, many football fans in the country have turned their attention to referee Ma Ning, whose growing online popularity has made him an unexpected symbol of Chinese representation at the tournament in North America.

The 46-year-old official, known among fans as Card Master because of his reputation for handing out bookings, attracted wide attention after posting social media photos last month showing his departure for the finals in Mexico, Canada and the United States. A hashtag linked to Ma's World Cup trip has drawn more than 3.6 million views on Weibo, while his account on RedNote picked up 195,000 followers in less than two weeks.

Ma's online posts helped fuel the reaction. In his first RedNote upload, he was shown pulling a small red book from the front pocket of his referee shirt, a visual joke tied to the Chinese name of the platform. Another post showed him at an airport in China as he prepared to leave for the tournament.

Fans responded with humour to the referee's growing profile. One user wrote under the airport post:

""His luggage is probably all filled with yellow and red cards,""

Ma earned the Card Master nickname after a stormy Shanghai derby in 2015 in which he issued nine yellow cards and three red cards. That reputation has remained central to his public image and has now become part of his World Cup appeal for Chinese supporters looking for a figure from their country to follow during the competition.

Ma's popularity has also extended into commercial partnerships, with appearances in collaborations involving laptop maker Lenovo, electronics company Hisense and dairy producer Mengniu.

Some online comments also connected Ma's presence at the tournament with broader geopolitics. Social media users joked about the idea of him refereeing a match between the United States and Iran, framing it as a continuation of China's self-styled role as a peace broker.

Another user, in a pointed reference to China's failure to qualify, commented:

""The whole country is behind you (though no one from the Chinese football team),""

China's national side did not reach the World Cup, but Ma's emergence as a viral figure has given fans a different focal point as the tournament gets under way.