May 26 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has issued new referee criteria emphasising the need to “continuously enhance the foundations for AFC MAs through the new criteria”.
AFC referees are high performers on the international circuit, having taken charge of a number of FIFA finals as well delivering their own championships. The AFC Referees Committee paid special tribute to its match officials for their role in the successful and safe staging of the AFC Champions League (West) Group Stage.
The new AFC criteria for both men and women match officials have been benchmarked against global best practices and will comprise three main areas – the level of refereeing, refereeing development, and level of football – with the same principles applying for match officials in men’s futsal competitions where the AFC nations are traditionally very competitive on the world stage.
Referees committee chairperson Du Zhaocai said: “Asian football has managed to restart safely, and our match officials have performed well. All of them have played a big role in the success of the AFC Champions League (West) and congratulations to everyone for their great efforts.
“It is important that we continue to update our criteria for international Asian referees to ensure they maintain their world-class standards.”
Among the new criteria is an introduction in 2023 of a retirement age of 65 for all AFC Referee Assessors and Instructors (Technical and Fitness) panel members. The AFC said this will enable greater succession planning while ensuring more opportunities for a younger generation of referee assessors and instructors.
The Committee also approved the new set of criteria for the recognition of Women’s Futsal and Beach Soccer match officials to better align their achievements against the Women’s Futsal and Beach Soccer competitions calendar.
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