The Iranian-born referee has been assigned to the final of 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
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Sunday 13 July 2025, 21:00 CET
MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford
Chelsea (ENG) - Paris Saint Germain FRA
Referee: Alireza Faghani IRN/AUS
Assistant Referee 1: Anton Shchetinin AUS
Assistant Referee 2: Ashley Beecham AUS
Fourth Official: Facundo Tello ARG
Fifth Official: Gabriel Chade ARG
Video Assistant Referee: Bastian Dankert GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Tatiana Guzman NCA
Support Video Assistant Referee: Ivan Bebek CRO
*yawn*
ReplyDeleteThis was the easiest tournament to predict, as said, Collina used it for his satisfaction with Marciniak and Faghani.
ReplyDeleteLet me clarify, I say that with respect, but in the end most or everything was already planned before kick off (indeed Faghani with the opener...). This is surely not respectful for other referees, they just took part in a rather "Big Brother..." show :)
Just remember the clear second YC he missed in an opener. If it were about meritocracy, he would be on his way home after the group stage. But not giving a second YC to host Miami is rewarded with a final. What a great message to the rest of the referees.
DeleteI must confess that these appointments surprise me quite a bit: If Pierluigi Collina had already planned to nominate Alireza Faghani for the final in advance, he didn't necessarily have had to assign him the opening match as well. I had rather expected that this tournament could be used to promote new talents with an eye on the World Cup next year, or to give Tori Penso a stronger representation as a female referee. While the actual appointments may have been largely merit-based (which is certainly worth mentioning positively), I had rather expected that FIFA would be more inclined to 'test' rather than rely on the veterans.
DeleteExcellent game for Faghani, deserved. Consistent performances through championship, alongside with Tello and Abatti. Path for him to WC Final 2026.
ReplyDeleteI was expecting because he is the best referee in the tournament until fourth official
ReplyDeleteFaghani planned for final with opener? I don't think so - I expected a way like Orsato WC 2022 - opener, important match and sonorous SF.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, a deserved prize for long-time career with recognition by Collina.
Any chances for WC final 2026? I don't think so, specially that Faghani is Iranian while a WC will be in US. A unique chance was lost in 2018.
Y este no se juega en Estados Unidos ?
DeleteUS - United States. I can't see a option when Iranian will be a main referee a huge tournament hosted by US, specially after political circumstances from last two months.
DeleteWhat is the relationship between he is from Iran and the final is held in America??
Delete@Abdiaziz ahmed yousuf: I think "fest" is referring to the explosive political situation between Iran and the USA. In the 1998 World Cup, there was exactly this clash in the group stage - it was officiated by Urs Meier from (the politically neutral) Switzerland.
DeleteIt seems that some forget that Faghani has an Australian passport...
DeleteIMO it's too easy in hindsight to argue that everything was planned.
ReplyDeleteE.g., you could also have made the same argument of a certain path, if Tello or Abatti had been appointed.
Furthermore, I don't think, that it was planned to have 4 UEFA / 2 AFC / 1 CONMEBOL / 0 CONCACAF appointments in the last 7 games.
Interesting, that Dankert was not among the reported names to have stayed at the tournament.
ReplyDeleteAl Marri probably wasn't possible due to the Qatar/PSG connections. Guzman could have been an option, but apparently they wanted some UEFA representation in the match officials team.
VAR appointments (VAR/AVAR/SVAR)
ReplyDeleteGallo: 6/4/0
Brisard: 4/3/1
Soto: 4/2/1
Dankert: 4/0/5
Kwiatkowski: 4/0/5
Bebek: 3/5/2
Pacheco: 3/4/2
Dieperink: 3/3/4
di Bello: 3/3/2
Lara: 3/2/3
Al Marri: 3/1/5
Guzman: 3/1/5 (so her only AVAR game is the final)
del Cerro Grande: 3/0/6
Evans: 2/5/2
Mastrangelo: 2/5/0
Miranda: 2/5/0
Gonzalez: 2/3/2
Ashour: 2/2/2
El Fariq: 2/2/2
van Driessche: 1/5/1
Hernandez: 1/3/5
Villareal: 1/2/3
Ming: 1/2/2
Mohammed: 1/1/3
I am one of Faghani’s biggest supporters and this feels like justice for 2018 and to a lesser extent 2022 where he was thrown under the bus.
ReplyDeleteBUT missing a blatant second yellow in the opener should have ruled him out of the final, clearly a predetermined appointment
+1
Deleteexcellent and fair reward given his career (and the WC final he should have been assigned to in 2018) but undeserved at this specific tournament
One should also try to understand more about Bebek, honestly it's impossible to read his situation, disappeared in UEFA, he was trusted VAR for a while, but still keeping the big reputation by Collina.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the truth? Who is good and who is not in a role? Impossible to understand. OK, maybe I'm making things too easy, but definitely today in modern refereeing it seems that the preferences of the heads of refereeing are very often more important than technical outcomes.
To follow, Guzman was praised in public by Collina and she is there as well. I have nothng against them but I observe the modern trend of refereeing, in which in my humble opinion, the very strict and harsh assessments of the past have been totally abandoned.
Rosetti and Collina are fundamentally very different leaders. It seems to me that Collina has a stronger eye for the technical aspects of refereeing and pays close attention to which referee style best suits a particular match. He also appears to treat veteran referees with a greater degree of respect and continuity. The notable exception is Letexier being preferred over Turpin. However, Collina also has his clear favorites — and those favorites are often not the same as Rosetti’s. Referees who enjoy what one might call “Collina love” can go remarkably deep in a tournament, with their path sometimes feeling “predetermined”.
ReplyDeleteRosetti, too, has his preferred referees, but he tends to be overly focused on keeping everyone satisfied. Unfortunately, he is also too often used as a puppet by Čeferin. Moreover, Rosetti has imho a reputation to consciously sacrifice referees (“throwing them under the bus”) in order to protect others.
That said, Alireza Faghani’s path to the final does not feel predetermined to me. An opening match appointment can just as easily serve as a form of compensation, especially when the referee is not seen as a top-tier candidate from the outset. It’s a prestigious assignment, but not necessarily an indication of a predetermined final.
The way things evolved now, I would say that CONMEBOL has a very strong chance of delivering the referee for the 2026 World Cup final (depending on the teams ofc).
A quote from Collina from FIFA.com: “It was a great competition. The people attending the matches confirm this, it was well played by players and well refereed by match officials.”
ReplyDeleteI just completely disagree, particularly with the well played by players part. The player behavior at this tournament has been nothing short of disappointing and shameful. You could make a 20+ minute long compilation video just of incidents of blatant dissent from this tournament. The refereeing was incredibly permissive of technical offenses such as the aforementioned dissent and delaying the restart, etc. as well as some physical offenses missed (which is more understandable). I don’t remember one time “only the captain” with the official signal was used in the tournament, and I watched a majority of the matches. I really hope this is not due to any instructions to be lenient by Collina, but I fear it is, because it was rather universal across all matches, still with some referees doing better than others. Also it must be mentioned that from an American perspective of those who do not like or do not watch football/soccer, one of the main reasons I hear is “the players dive, fake injuries, complain, and whine all the time” there was no shortage of that in this tournament, which does not help FIFA with the World Cup coming up as far as filling their empty stadiums and attracting new football fans.
Collina also spoke about the referees perspective using the particular camera. Too many trivial things, it follows the usual logic of always speaking positively about what has been done and tested. From this point of view, refereeing, even at international level, will always remain self-referential, because saying the opposite in public is not possible (just recall also Rosetti's rather questionable words about Euro 2024).
DeleteOf course, there are some positive points, but many of the things Collina mentioned should have been evident much earlier than after this tournament.
I feel good for Faghani, his first final since 2019 (!) which is amazing, considering his status and reputation.
ReplyDeleteBeath’s assistants repeating final after 2022…Curiously, they will face Chelsea again in a final ;)
Agree that Bebek’s situation is very strange…Nothing in UEFA but a big trust by Collina (If i’m not wrong he was part of the VAR team in the Olympic W final as well) so i don’t know what to think TBH.
Yes, congrats also to Anton and Ashley for being appointed to their 2nd Club World Cup Final after their first one in 2022.
DeleteAs others have said, this is a deserved career reward, but very much undeserved in this tournament. I'd like to think if this was the proper World Cup, such a decision would not have been made, but with Collina, can we ever be truly sure :-)
ReplyDeleteI also don't think it's a bad idea to use non-Uefa referees where possible in these sorts of games, as it at least leaves the option open for finals where they are really needed, and hopefully quells political pressures from other associations for a little while
VAR Dankert, he deserves it. He seems to be highly valued by both FIFA and UEFA.
ReplyDeleteIn my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteAlireza Faghani (IRN/AUS) reminds me of what Carlos Batres (GUA) once was for the FIFA Referee Committee.
A veteran referee who has earned his stripes and who is trusted by the Referee Committee as a safe pair of hands.
An intelligent referee who relies on vast experience to do just enough to get through matches and to steer clear of major troubles.
A referee who is nowhere near the peak physical ability they once had.
A referee who continues to receive top notch assignments based more so on past glories than on present form.
Thank you, that is all.
I’ve seen a lot of criticism suggesting that FIFA had more or less mapped out referee appointments in advance - predetermined paths, unless someone’s performance dipped below par (for example, Kovács).
ReplyDeleteAnd I understand that criticism, because it gives the impression that not every official had an equal shot at the final from the start.
But compare that to the messy appointments at the Women’s Euros, where an assistant referee could get Poland three matches in a row, or where Demetrescu, Pesu, and Klarkund were repeating countries already in the group stage. That should be easily avoidable, especially in a world with smart scheduling tools and modern technology.
In that sense, FIFA did a better and more balanced job. The officials with full UEFA appointments were also given intercontinental matches. A lower-profile assignment was balanced out with a higher-profile one; see Turpin, for example.
Pls let me say: Thanks for your interesting opinions and the rich discussion as well I read consequently: I learned very much from all of them, particolarly becouse of coming from from different latitudes, experience and world areas !
ReplyDeleteIMO: Concurring with @Anonymous comments, I'd like to add a few considerations.
To officiate at FIFA matches, one must have acquired adequate experience in the respective Continental Confederations, including UEFA.
It's therefore clear—looking at the differences between Collina's and Rosetti's perspectives—that Rosetti at UEFA seeks to scout and develop young referees, give them experience, and make them reliable for FIFA assignments.
Collina portfolio therefore naturally includes experienced referees of varying ages; here, there's the need on the one hand to develop the performance of the younger referees by gradually using them in increasingly complex matches, and on the other to ensure consistency between the referee's reliability and experience and the complexity of the match.
Now, none of us could be in Collina's mind, and it's certainly possible and legitimate that he had already drawn up a list of potential ref finalists at the start of the tournament: but with the flexibility that can depend on the specific performances of each referee in the tournament, the possible overperformance of any referees not initially included in the list, and the country of the teams in the final.
I believe this is completely normal, and vice versa, it wouldn't be normal if a FIFA Comm/Ref Chief didn't have ideas clear enough before this tournament.
Vincic was probably also on the list, but might have been later excluded from the F/SF for not have living up to expectations.
That said, I find nothing strange about the designation of Faghani, who has experience and reliability unlike very few other referees in the world. And that - being 47 years old - I doubt he'll be able to participate in the 2026 WC.
Finally, I'd add that refereeing the opening match doesn't always bring luck: think of Nishimura/JAP (IFC World Ref Award 2012) who was sidelined after a disastrous Croatia-Brazil match in WC 2014, of Orsato/FRA's less than convincing Qatar-Ecuador match in WC 2022, or of Turpin/FRA's disconcerting Scotland-Germany match in EU 2024.
Faghani, on the other hand, refereed very well, broke the spell, and the final can rightfully be considered his.
Correct: Orsato /ITA (not /FRA). Sorry.
ReplyDeleteFinally, if I may, I would add that I agree with Collina's statement about the average to high quality of refereeing in this tournament. Simply because it's true.
ReplyDeleteA referee has to be judged by the correctness or otherwise of his approach to the match, his reading of its events, his modulation of technical and disciplinary interventions in relation to key moments, and his intelligence in managing them; he isn't judged by a foul detected or not, or by a higher or lower YC if, in an overall evaluation, they are of marginal importance.
From this perspective, the standard of refereeing was good, indeed very good.
Some of you have criticized an excessive tolerance of protests or simulations; maybe, but we must consider two aspects.
First: the FIFA CWC is an international tournament with only a few matches for each team, and the weight of a disciplinary measure is different from that of a national championship; this requires particular attention in evaluating and adopting sanctions, which must be modulated and, above all, preceded by adequate warning and prevention activities.
Second: the teams come from all over the world, from leagues where player approaches, competitive spirit, protests, and player animosity are handled by referees according to the standards of those leagues. I find it extremely unrealistic (and wrong) to apply a European standard of judgment to a match involving South American teams, or vice versa.
From this perspective, the most difficult task for a European is to referee, for example, matches involving only South American teams (and vice versa), or matches between South American and European teams, precisely because the competitive spirit of the players and the referee's standard of judgment have different imprints.
That said, the most difficult matches (at least on paper) were those entrusted to Letexier: the Brazilian derby and the SF Chelsea-Fluminense match. And Letexier was globally excellent in both matches, precisely because he knew how to adopt a standard of judgment and tolerance intelligently consistent with the continental habits of these teams, without the biases he derived from his UEFA experience.
Now the F match will not be easy for Faghani either, and he will have to draw on his poise and long experience to calibrate his approach correctly rather than to trust in his authority name force only.
Dear ITAREF, reading your thoughts makes me happy, your interpretation of the referee's performance is amazing, I attach your words superbly describing how a performance should be considered :"A referee has to be judged by the correctness or otherwise of his approach to the match, his reading of its events, his modulation of technical and disciplinary interventions in relation to key moments, and his intelligence in managing them; he isn't judged by a foul detected or not, or by a higher or lower YC if, in an overall evaluation, they are of marginal importance." I stand up and applaud you for a long time.
ReplyDelete