TEHRAN – Iran’s Alireza Faghani says the Asian referees have done well so far at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Faghani has taken charge of a number of high-profile games in Asia and is up there among the best in the world.

In his impressive career, the 40-year-old has officiated finals of the 2014 AFC Champions League, 2015 AFC Asian Cup, 2015 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Football Tournament.

Faghani started his career in 1994 and became a FIFA referee in 2008. By 2009 he become an elite referee and went on to build his career by officiating in the AFC Cup, AFC Champions League and two years later, participated in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as a support referee.

The 2016 AFC Referee of the Year built on the experience and officiated in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final and was also tasked with the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Asian play-off match between Syria and Australia.

The 2018 edition is Faghani’s second stint in the World Cup. His last appearance was in Brazil 2014 where he was the fourth official for seven matches, including the opening match between hosts Brazil and Croatia.

Faghani has officiated three matches, namely Germany and Mexico, Serbia and Brazil as well as Argentina and France so far and was fourth official of Uruguay and France match.

In an exclusive interview with Tehran Times, Faghani reveals they have still a chance of officiating in the final match.

Bright Future Ahead of Asian Referees

“The all referees have done well in the 2018 World Cup so far as well as the Asian referees. I think the Asian referees have a bright future ahead of them. The AFC Project Future Referees Batch is a unique elite development program who helps the continent’s young referees. The Asian referees will also participate at the AFC Referee Academy which will focus on the AFC’s objective of increasing the number of AFC referees at world-class level and extending development support to the AFC Member Associations.”

Still Hopeful of Officiating in Final Match

“As I’ve already said, my dream is to officiate at the 2018 FIFA World Cup final match. It’s still not clear who will whistle the final match. We see an all European last four but there is no reason a European referee to officiate the final match. We have still a chance of officiating in the final. I believe that the all referees have done well so far despite the Video Assistant Referees (VAR). The 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be held in the UAE in January and the Asian referees are preparing for the competition.”

The FIFA Referees Committee has selected 36 referees and 63 assistant referees, representing 46 different countries, for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.

Alireza Faghani from Iran has been appointed as a match official at the FIFA World Cup, while Mohammadreza Mansouri and Reza Sokhandan were selected as assistant referees.

Preparations for the road to Russia kicked off in September 2014 not only for the 32 participating teams, but also for the initial group of 53 FIFA referee trios from around the world.

The choice of the final group of match officials selected to officiate at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia was based on each referee’s skills and personality, as well as his level of understanding of football and ability to read both the game and the various tactics employed by teams.

Over the last three years, preparatory seminars have taken place for referees and assistant referees focusing on fair play, protecting players and the image of the game, as well as consistency and uniformity. The selected FIFA World Cup match officials will attend another dedicated seminar for two weeks in the second half of April at the technical center of the Italian Football Association in Coverciano, Italy. The officials will be divided into two groups, which will also include video assistant referee (VAR) candidates, FIFA.com reported.

Following this seminar, the FIFA Referees Committee will announce the names of the referees selected to act as VARs during football’s most important competition, the FIFA World Cup. The selection process will take into account the candidate’s VAR experience in domestic leagues, FIFA competitions and FIFA refereeing seminars since the beginning of the VAR project in 2016.

Between now and the World Cup in June, the selected referees, assistant referees and VARs will be monitored and supported by FIFA Refereeing on an individual basis to ensure they are fully prepared. Following the seminar in Coverciano, all of the match officials will take part in a final preparatory seminar at the FIFA World Cup match officials’ HQ in Moscow, which will start ten days before the tournament kicks off. This seminar will also cover VAR.

During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the selected match officials will operate in a variety of roles, e.g. referees, assistant referees, fourth officials, reserve assistant referees and video match officials.