Some information about the referee of the final match between Vietnam and Uzbekistan

Accordingly, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has decided to cancel the referee team led by Mr. Ma Ninh, who officiated the final match between Vietnam and Uzbekistan. The person appointed to replace him is referee Ahmed Al-Kaf - who officiated the match between Vietnam and Syria with a score of 0-0 in the final round of the group stage. The reason given by AFC for this replacement is to ensure security for the most important match of the tournament.

Ahmed Al-Kaf will be the "judge" in the U23 Asian final between Vietnam and Uzbekistan.

Referee Ahmed Al-Kaf, born in 1983, from Oman, is also a FIFA referee, he has had a certificate since 2010. Ahmed Al-Kaf is also familiar with AFC tournaments.

At this year's U.23 Asian Cup, Mr. Ahmed Al-Kaf has only officiated one match, which was the match between U.23 Vietnam and U.23 Syria (0-0 draw) in the final round of the group stage. Like Ma Ning, referee Al-Kaf was shortlisted by AFC to officiate the most important match.

Mr. Ahmed Al-Kaf also participated in the matches at the AFF Cup in 2014, in which the most "cruel" match was the last match of Group B when he was the main referee for the match between Singapore and Malaysia (1-1 draw until extra time), Mr. Ahmed Al-Kaf awarded a controversial penalty that helped striker Safiq score to take the lead 2-1 in the 90+3 minute, before 2 minutes later, Indra Putra scored the winning goal 3-1 for Malaysia and won a spectacular ticket right from Singapore to the semi-finals.

Mr. Ahmed Al-Kaf also participated in refereeing matches at the AFF Cup in 2014.

Apart from this “flaw”, referee Ahmed Al-Kaf has been considered quite fair in the matches he has refereed in the AFC Champions League for many years now, and has left behind few significant negative comments. Furthermore, referee Ahmed Al-Kaf looks very similar to the famous former Italian referee, Pierluigi Collina.

RefereeAhmed Al-Kafhas a lot of experience in refereeing big matches. In 2014, the U23 Vietnam team also had a chance to meet this referee. At the Asian Games, our team defeated U23 Iran 4-1, however, referee Ahmed Al Kaf gave out 4 yellow cards to U23 Vietnam.

Hopefully Ahmed Al Kaf will bring luck to coach Park Hang Seo and his team in the final match.

At the U20 World Cup last year, Ahmed Al Kaf did not start. He was only assigned as the fourth referee and in that match, U20 Vietnam lost to U20 Honduras 0-2.

With such a record, it can be hoped that Ahmed Al Kaf will bring luck to coach Park Hang Seo and his team in the historic final match against U23 Uzbekistan to win the Asian championship.