September 6: Shanghai Port vs Beijing Guoan, Referee Revealed! Li Haixin Becomes No.1 on Shanghai Port Fans' 'Nemesis Ranking', Shanghai Port Fans and Mu Yuchen's Officiating

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Before today, the name Mu Yuchen may not have been familiar to many fans. But if you followed the August 1, 2026 match between Shanghai Port and Shandong Taishan, you probably remember him. In that match, he initiated VAR reviews five times, three goals were ruled out, and a ten-man Taishan took three points away from Pudong. Today, September 5, 2026 at 19:35, in CSL Round 26, Shanghai Port host Beijing Guoan, and the referee is again Mu Yuchen. Who exactly is he? What is his officiating style? Why do comment sections explode whenever he handles a high-profile match?

Mu Yuchen is from Xi'an. In 1998, he joined Shaanxi Guoli Football Club and was a key player for the team. After his playing career, he entered Xi'an Physical Education University, studying football in the sports training program, and later pursued a master's degree. In 2007, he became a teacher at Xi'an University of Finance and Economics Xingzhi College. In 2010, he obtained national-level football association referee qualification.

From 2010 to the present, he has officiated matches in China League One, China League Two, the FA Cup, and the National University Super League. In 2019, he won the Xi'an Football Association Referee Committee's Silver Whistle Award, and in 2020 he was named the best referee in the Shaanxi A League. In 2024, he was promoted from China League One to the CSL, becoming the only active CSL referee from Shaanxi Province. At Xi'an University of Finance and Economics Xingzhi College, he founded the university football team in 2010 and served as head coach. In 2022, the school became a referee training base of the Xi'an Football Association, where he serves as a training instructor. He has organized three training courses and trained 90 football referees. Thus, he teaches and coaches students during weekdays and wears the referee uniform for CSL matches on weekends.

As of September 5, 2026, in Mu Yuchen's recent nearly 20 matches as the main referee, home teams have recorded 9 wins, 6 draws, and 5 losses, with 80 yellow cards, 3 red cards, and 8 penalties awarded. An average of four yellow cards per match places this figure among the higher levels among CSL referees. He has officiated two Shanghai Port matches, with Port recording one win and one loss, receiving three yellow cards, no red cards, and one penalty. He officiated one Beijing Guoan match—the 2025 CSL game in which Guoan beat Wuhan Three Towns 4-0 at home—where Guoan received two yellow cards, no red cards, and one penalty.

However, statistics change. When he officiated Zhejiang vs Qingdao Hainiu in mid-July 2026, his recent 20-match data was 80 yellow cards, 4 red cards, and 5 penalties. Before the July 31 Shanghai Port vs Taishan match, it became 82 yellow cards, 2 red cards, and 7 penalties. By today's Shanghai Port vs Guoan match, it changed again to 80 yellow cards, 3 red cards, and 8 penalties. Every match continues to alter his statistical record.

At 19:35 on August 1, 2026, CSL Round 21 saw Shanghai Port host Shandong Taishan. Mu Yuchen was the referee. Of the five goals scored in the match, four were ruled out. He initiated 10 VAR checks. The match was heavily interrupted. The first disallowed goal came in first-half stoppage time. Liu Zhurun played a through ball from midfield, Anpemp beat the offside trap and scored in a one-on-one shot, and Shanghai Port players celebrated together. Then Mu Yuchen received a VAR notification and went to the pitch-side monitor for five minutes. The replay showed that before the goal, Shanghai Port foreign player Vital stepped on Taishan player Madruga's ankle while protecting the ball in midfield. Five minutes later, Mu Yuchen returned and ruled the goal invalid.

Shanghai Port fans went from excitement to silence in less than six minutes. What drew more attention from the Port side was another question: if VAR determined that Vital committed an intentional stepping foul, and stepping on an ankle is a direct red-card offense under the rules, why was only the goal cancelled and no red card shown? One decision left both sides dissatisfied. The second disallowed goal came in the 74th minute. In the 64th minute, Taishan's Huang Zhengyu received a second yellow card and was sent off, leaving Taishan with ten players. In the 73rd minute, Port won a penalty, Vital's shot was saved, and Li Xinxiang scored from the rebound. VAR intervened, and after review Mu Yuchen ruled that Li Xinxiang had entered the penalty area early before Vital touched the ball, so the goal was cancelled.

The third disallowed goal came in the fourth minute of stoppage time, when Wu Lei was judged to have interfered from an offside position, and the goal was ruled invalid. The final score was 0-1, with ten-man Taishan goalkeeper Yu Jinyong saving the penalty and making eight saves overall to take three points from Pudong. After the match, the Weibo topic "Mu Yuchen VAR Review" surpassed 80 million views within two hours. Some fans called him an "academic-style" referee—strict and meticulous. Others commented that he was "more strict than decisive." Less than 20 days later, on August 17, 2026, CSL Round 23 saw Yunnan Yukun host Dalian Yingbo, with Mu Yuchen again as referee. Dalian Yingbo were overturned away by Yunnan Yukun. After the match, Dalian Yingbo appealed four disputed decisions to the Chinese Football Association and the CUL. They alleged inconsistent standards in the referee team's decisions.

The specific controversies included: in the first half, Dalian Yingbo's Mao Weijie received a yellow card for a defensive action, followed shortly afterward by a second yellow card for a tackle and was sent off. Near the end of the first half, a Yunnan Yukun player's contact with Achim Peng's ankle was not penalized. In the 72nd minute, a Yunnan Yukun player interfered with the goalkeeper's view from an offside position, Kleber scored with a header, the referee allowed the goal, and Dalian Yingbo lost 1-3. In the same round, Chengdu Rongcheng vs Zhejiang saw Felipe's goal cancelled because Wang Ziming's offside position interfered with the goalkeeper—same situation, different outcome. This was Dalian Yingbo's second consecutive round filing appeals. In the previous Liaoning derby, they submitted five appeals, all rejected.

In today's Shanghai Port vs Guoan match, the VAR official is Li Haixin. Some Shanghai Port fans directly wrote on social media: "With referee Mu Yuchen and VAR Li Haixin, you already know how tonight will go." Others called Li Haixin the "No.1 figure on Shanghai Port's nemesis ranking." Mu Yuchen's record when refereeing Shanghai Port is one win and one loss—the defeat was the August 1 match in which three Port goals were ruled out. For Guoan, Mu Yuchen's only previous match as referee saw Guoan win 4-0.

At 19:35, Pudong Football Stadium. Mu Yuchen—the former Shaanxi Guoli player, Xi'an University of Finance and Economics teacher, and the only active CSL referee from Shaanxi Province—will officiate Guoan for the second time as the main referee and Shanghai Port for the third time.