On November 3, news from FIFA came out that the referees for the second phase of the 2026 Asian World Qualifiers, as well as the first two rounds of the 36-team tournament between China and Thailand and South Korea, have been confirmed, and Salman Al-Farahi and Abdulrahman Jassim from Qatar will be the referees to enforce the two matches respectively.
According to the selection results of FIFA and AFC, 33-year-old Qatari referee Salman Ahmad Al-Farahi will be the main referee in the first round of the 36-team tournament on November 16 against Thailand. The "90-year-old" referee is known to have started refereeing Qatar's local top-flight professional league in 2014, before being promoted to international referee in 2017. However, it was not until 2022 that he was included in the AFC's "elite referee lineup", and from November 16th, he began to enforce the AFC Champions League. Coincidentally, his first AFC Champions League match was between Shandong Taishan of the Chinese Super League and Daegu C of South Korea.
At the enforcement level for national team matches, Farahi hosted New Zealand against Fiji last year in the Qatar Premier Oceania tournament. He also enforced the fifth U23 Asian Cup hosted by Uzbekistan last June. Earlier this year, Farahi took part in the Gulf Cup enforcement. He then went to Argentina to enforce some U20 World Cups in May and June this year.
Before enforcing the China-Thailand match, Farahi had only organized 7 international A-level matches. In the international law enforcement arena, he is truly a "young whistle". However, in recent years, he has been taken seriously by the AFC and has been included in the referee line-up for the Asian Cup in January next year.
The Chinese team will need data to understand the young referee's enforcement characteristics, especially his keenness to play cards. Farahi has shown 67 yellow cards in 21 international matches enforced as a referee, averaging more than three per match. In 132 domestic matches in Qatar, he has shown 520 yellow cards, an average of nearly four yellow cards per match. He also showed two red cards in 21 international matches.
Information shows that the two assistant referees for Farahi's enforcement of the China-Thailand match are also from Qatar. They are 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.
As for the national football team's home match against South Korea on November 21, Qatar's famous whistle Jassim officiated. This is also after the 2019 Asian Cup group stage between China and South Korea, he once again as the main referee to enforce the game between the two teams.36-year-old Jassim familiar with the Chinese soccer community and fans. Back in 2013, he was invited to China for two matches:Shanghai Shenxin vs Shanghai Shenhua and Jiangsu Suntian vs Beijing National.In 2015, Jassim began to participate in the enforcement of major international matches and took part in the enforcement of the U17 World Cup in Chile.In 2017, he once again participated in the World Cup. , 4th place finals.
Jassim has repeatedly enforced Chinese Super League teams in AFC Champions League matches. For example, in 2015, he enforced the match between Seoul FC of South Korea and Guangzhou Evergrande. In the following year, Jassim enforced five AFC Champions League matches for Chinese Super League teams. From 2015 to 2020, Jassim has enforced AFC Champions League matches involving Chinese Super League teams for six consecutive seasons.
Due to the outcome of the matches, Jassim sometimes inevitably gets upset by some Chinese fans. For example, in the 2016 AFC Champions League match between Shanghai Shanghai and Jeonbuk Hyundai, Jassim penalized Shanghai Shanghai's Lu Wenjun and awarded Jeonbuk Hyundai a penalty kick. In the end, Shanghai lost 0-5 and was eliminated.
During the final round of the 2019 Asian Cup group stage match between China and South Korea, Jassim was awarded a penalty shortly after the start of the match and showed yellow cards to four Chinese internationals - Zhang Linmiao, Zhang Chendong, Zhao Xueri and Linlin - during the match. The Chinese Olympics lost 0-2 to Jassim during the U23 Asian Cup group stage match between the Chinese Olympics and the Uzbekistan Olympics in January 2020 in Songkhla, Thailand. Jassim's last enforcement for China was China's 0-2 defeat to Japan in the Qatar World Preliminary Round Asia 12.
Qatar are also the assistant referees for the 36-team China-Korea match, in the form of Taleb Salem Al-Marri and Saud Al-Makaleh. It is worth noting that China will not have a VAR referee for the 36-team tournament, so the match will be decided by the referee on duty.
