[Breaking News, Nov. 3] FIFA has officially announced that the list of referees for the second phase of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying tournament in Asia, as well as the first two rounds of the 36-team tournament against Thailand and South Korea, has been finalized. Salman Farahi and Abdulrahman Jassim from Qatar will referee the two key duels respectively.
Qatari referee Salman Ahmad Al-Farahi, 33, will referee the first round of the 36-team tournament against Thailand on November 16, it has been announced. Since 2014, the "90" referee in Qatar's local top league as a referee, and in 2017 among the international arena. 2022, he joined the elite referees of the AFC, from November 16 to start the AFC Champions League law enforcement career. In his first match in the AFC Champions League, he will face the Chinese Super League's Shandong Taishan team and South Korea's Daegu C team.
Farahi previously enforced New Zealand against Fiji in last year's Qatar Qualifiers Oceania tournament and featured in the U23 Asian Cup in June. He was also involved in enforcing the Gulf Cup and U20 World Cup earlier this year. Prior to the China-Thailand match, he had officiated at only seven international A-level matches and was known as a "new generation referee". However, he has recently been favored by the AFC and has been selected as a referee for the Asian Cup in January next year.
Chinese teams need to pay attention to Farahi's enforcement style, especially his habit of showing yellow cards. As a referee, he has shown 67 yellow cards in 21 international matches, an average of more than three; in 132 domestic matches in Qatar, he has shown 520 yellow cards, an average of nearly four; in addition, he has shown two red cards.
The Farahi assistants enforcing the China-Thailand match are also from Qatar and include Ramzan Saeed Al-Naimi and Majid Al-Shammari, while the fourth official is Iraq's Youssef Saeed Al-Hassan. The referee and match supervisor are from Jordan and Maldives respectively.
For the Chinese football team's home match against South Korea on Nov. 21, 36-year-old Qatari whistle Jassim will once again officiate both teams. Jassim has been associated with Chinese soccer since 2013, and has refereed several Chinese Super League (CSL) teams in the AFC Champions League. in 2015, he refereed the match between Seoul FC and Evergrande, and since then he has been involved in refereeing CSL teams in the AFC Champions League for six years in a row.
Although Jassim's enforcement has caused dissatisfaction among Chinese fans, such as in the 2016 AFC Champions League match between Shanghai SIPG and Jeonbuk Hyundai, he showed a controversial penalty, which led to a 0-5 loss for Shanghai SIPG. In addition, he also caused controversy with his penalties in the China-South Korea match in the group stage of the 2019 Asian Cup.
Notably, Qatar is also serving as assistant referees for the China-South Korea match, including Taleb Salem Al-Marri and Saud Al-Makaleh. China will be without a VAR referee for the 36-team tournament, so match decisions will depend entirely on the referee on duty.
