Singaporean referee 'changes nationality' to Qatar
Referee Taqi's website became the target of "attacks" by fans after his controversial penalty decision in the match between U23 Qatar and U23 Vietnam.
For the second consecutive match in the knockout round, U23 Vietnam had to accept a penalty. In the 39th minute of the semi-final of the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, Bui Tien Dung had an impact on a Qatar player in the 16.5m area. Referee Muhammad Taqi gave a yellow card to the U23 Vietnam midfielder and pointed to the 11m mark. Afif (10) of course made no mistake, successfully opening the score for U23 Qatar.
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| Referee Muhammad Taqi. |
The decision by referee Muhammad Taqi was somewhat sensitive, especially when it happened in a semi-final at a continental tournament.
The referee blew the whistle for U23 Vietnam. The Singaporean referee caused a lot of controversy when he blew the whistle for a penalty against U23 Vietnam.
JobVietnam U23 teamHaving to suffer the second penalty in 2 consecutive matches (3rd since the beginning of the tournament) made many fans angry. Some fans quickly edited the personal information page of referee Mumammad Taqi to release the pent-up frustration after 2 matches.
Initially, the personal information page of the black-shirted king born in 1986 had the following content: "Muhammad Taqi is a Singaporean international referee recognized by FIFA in 2012. He has participated in refereeing a number of matches in the AFC Champions League".
However, after the decision to penalize U23 Vietnam, Muhammad Taqi had his nationality "changed": "Taqi is a Qatari international referee recognized by FIFA in 2012. He is one of the loyal fans of the Qatar National Team".
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| Wikipedia page before and after referee Muhammad Taqi's edits. |
The information was only available for a short while before being edited back to its original form. However, many fans quickly took pictures and spread them around at a dizzying speed.
Referee Taqi’s Facebook page was also locked due to pressure from Vietnamese fans. Previously, the personal page of Chris Beath - the referee of the quarter-final match between U23 Vietnam and U23 Iraq also suffered the same fate because of the inexplicable decision to award Iraq a penalty to equalize the score 1-1.
Commenting on the decision to penalize U23 Vietnam, former referee Duong Manh Hung said: “The Singaporean referee made the right decision. The referee judged that the run of the Qatar U23 player could have led to a goal. Tien Dung intervened in that situation, thus destroying the opponent’s chance to score.”
Let the opponent lead twice butVietnam U23 playerswith the spirit of not giving up, they equalized in 90 minutes, forced the opponent to play 2 extra halves and won a thrilling victory after a nerve-wracking penalty shootout. Coach Park Hang-seo and his team officially made history when they entered the final match of the Asian tournament against U23 Uzbekistan.
The 2018 AFC U23 Championship final will take place at 3am on January 27 at Changzhou Stadium, China.
