A strong wind from FIFA swept in on Nov. 3, as the list of referees for China's showdowns with Thailand and South Korea in the second stage of the 2026 Asian World Qualifiers and the first two rounds of the 36-team tournament has been finalized. Two referees from Qatar, Salman Farahi and Abdulrahman Jassim, will officiate in the two marquee matches.
Salman Ahmad Farahi, 33, a "post-90s" referee who has been refereeing in Qatar's local top flight since 2014 and was promoted to international level in 2017, was included in the AFC's "Elite Referee Line-up" in 2022 and began refereeing AFC Champions League matches on November 16th. In 2022, he was included in AFC's "Elite Referee Lineup" and began refereeing AFC Champions League matches on November 16th. The first AFC Champions League match will be between Chinese Super League's Shandong Taishan and Daegu C of South Korea. Last year, Farahi officiated New Zealand's match against Fiji in the Qatar Premier Oceania tournament and also featured in the U23 Asian Cup in June and the Gulf Cup earlier this year. He also traveled to Argentina to referee the U20 World Cup in May and June this year. Despite having little experience at international A level, his name is already on the list of referees for the Asian Cup next January.
For the upcoming match between China and Thailand, Farahi has shown 67 yellow cards in 21 international matches, an average of over three. In 132 domestic matches in Qatar, he has even shown 520 yellow cards, an average of nearly four. In addition, he has also shown two red cards. It is worth mentioning that the two assistant referees enforcing the match were also from Qatar, Ramzan Saeed Al-Naimi and Majid Al-Shammari, while the fourth official was Iraq's Youssef Saeed Al-Hassan, while the referee and the match supervisor were from Jordan and the Maldives, respectively.
The other big match, the Chinese football team's home match against South Korea on Nov. 21, will be officiated by 36-year-old Qatari whistle Jassim. Jassim is no stranger to Chinese and South Korean soccer, as he was invited to enforce two matches between Shanghai Shenxin and Shanghai Shenhua, and between Jiangsu Suntian and Beijing National in 2013.In 2015, he began to participate in the enforcement of major international matches, with the U17 World Cup in Chile and the 2017 World Cup. Jassim has repeatedly enforced Chinese Super League (CSL) teams in AFC Champions League matches, refereeing CSL teams in AFC Champions League matches for six consecutive seasons from 2015 to 2020.
This is despite the fact that Jassim has sometimes been disgruntled by Chinese fans during his enforcement, such as in the 2016 AFC Champions League match between Shanghai SIPG and Jeonbuk Hyundai, where he awarded Jeonbuk Hyundai a penalty that led to a 0-5 defeat. In the group stage of the 2019 Asian Cup, he awarded a penalty to South Korea early in the match and showed yellow cards to four Chinese players. He also "sent off" China 0-2 in the group stage of the 2020 U23 Asian Cup. Jassim's last match in China was a 0-2 defeat against Japan in the Asian qualifying round of 12 in Qatar.
It is worth noting that Qatar is also serving as assistant referees for the China-South Korea match, with Taleb Salem Al-Marri and Saud Al-Makaleh. China will have no VAR referee for the 36-team tournament, so the match will be decided entirely by the referee on duty.
