UAE referee to officiate Vietnam match against China

According to recent announcement by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Abdullah Hassan will be joined by assistant referees Mohamed Ahmed Yousef Hamadi, Hassan Mohamed Mahri, and Adel Hamis Nakbi.

Elsewhere, the other referees will include Amar Ali Juma Janabi and his assistant Omar Mohamed Hassan Ali, both of whom will be responsible for the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology. With the UAE hosting the fixture, all of the referees are from the host country.

Abdullah Hassan is a familiar face for the Vietnamese side having previously officiated Vietnam’s quarter-final clash at the 2019 Asian Cup against Japan. Most notably in that game, the team led by head coach Park Hang-seo suffered a loss 1-0 defeat due to a penalty being given by the UAE referee after using VAR technology.

He also took charge of a match against Honduras as part of qualifiers for the U20 World Cup in 2017, along with a game against the Republic of Korea at the 2018 AFC U19 Championship.   

So far during qualification, Vietnam has lost two matches, including a 3-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia and a 1-0 loss to Australia in the final round of Asian qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The game between Vietnam and China will take place in the UAE at 00:00 a.m. on October 8 (Hanoi time). After that, the team will then travel to Oman to play the host country on October 12.