At 1:00 a.m. Beijing time on the 8th, the Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates will witness a key matchup between our team and the Philippines in Group A of the World Cup Qualifier Asian Zone Top 40 competition. The winner of the match will not only have a bearing on the ranking of the group, but will also have a direct impact on the second place in the group, so the refereeing lineup for the match will also attract a lot of attention. According to the latest news from the AFC, Korean referee Kim Hee-Kun, who has been enforcing the Chinese Super League for a long time, will be the referee for this match, which is not bad news for our team.
However, due to a number of objective constraints, VAR technology will not be introduced to assist referee enforcement in this 40-team tournament. This means that the key players in determining the outcome of the match are still the referees on duty, especially the head referee.
A total of 14 referees are involved in the enforcement of Group A of the 40-team tournament, including six referees with the qualifications of chief referee and fourth official, and eight assistant referees, according to Beijings-Beijing Headline. The six referees are from Jordan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore and Thailand. Among them, Korean referee Kim Hee Gon is undoubtedly a familiar face.
Jin Xikun, as a regular in the Chinese Super League, has left a deep impression on the soccer world and fans in China. He not only enforced a number of key matches in last season's Chinese Super League and the Central League Elevation Playoffs, but also enforced the Chinese Super League and FA Cup matches in the 2018 season. It can be said that his familiarity with Chinese Super League matches and his knowledge of our country's soccer is quite profound.
It is worth mentioning that Jin Xikun spent "closed days" with the staff of the Chinese Super League during the enforcement of the last season in China, and established a deep friendship with the referees on the roster of the China Football Association. When he left Suzhou, he also took a group photo with the Chinese refereeing staff of the Chinese Super League. This shows that he is quite friendly to our soccer players.
Therefore, in the China-Philippines matches enforced by Kim Hee-Kun, the players, coaches and officials of our team should respect and abide by the referee's decisions, focus their attention on the matches, and do their best to win.
