*This content was translated by AI.
The quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup match against Australia will be hosted by the Chinese referee.
AFC announced that the Korea-Australia match, which will be held at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at 0:30 a.m. on the 18th (Korea Standard Time), will be hosted by the Chinese national referee Fuming.
The assistant referee will be in charge of Kaoi, who has the same Chinese nationality, and Ali Zirak, who has Kuwait nationality, respectively. The waiting list is Kuwait's referee Abdullah Jamali.
Mohamed Obaid Kadim Mohamed (UAE) and Muhammad Taki Al Jafari bin Zahari (Singapore) will play the role of VAR and assistant VAR, respectively.
The Booming referee, who hosts the game, has been an international FIFA referee since 2014. Not only the Chinese Super League, but also the Japanese professional football J-League game was held last year. He oversaw the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League and recent A-match friendly matches against Japan and Bolivia.
South Korea, led by head coach Lee Min-sung, previously passed Group C in second place and will face Australia, which is ranked first in Group D, in the quarterfinals. South Korea beat Lebanon 4-2 after drawing 0-0 with Iran, but suffered a shock 0-2 loss to Uzbekistan, who played for the U-21 national team in the final group match. However, at the same time, Iran lost to Lebanon and managed to reach the quarterfinals as second place in the group.
Australia and South Korea have nine wins, four draws, and three losses between the U-23 national teams. However, in June last year, immediately after Lee Min-sung's inauguration, he had only one draw and one loss in two domestic friendly matches.
Meanwhile, referee Kim Woo-sung was assigned to AVAR in the quarterfinals of another tournament between Uzbekistan and China at 8:30 p.m. on the 17th before the Korea-Australia match.
Kim Woo-sung's AVAR assignment is the only Korean referee assigned to the quarterfinals of this tournament, including the match between Japan and Jordan and the Vietnam-United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Judge Kim Woo-sung was a referee who previously claimed to have suffered racism from former Jeonbuk Hyundai coach Thanos, and was later suspended for three months by the Korea Football Association for conducting a media interview without approval from the Korea Football Association. However, the disciplinary action is not related to the Asian Cup allocation organized by AFC because it is a disciplinary action by the Korea Football Association.
Instead, controversy over the effectiveness of the Korea Football Association's three-month suspension of the "off-season" allocation is inevitable. At the time, the Korea Football Association explained, "Referees make a living by allocating off-season training and practice games, but they are disciplined as they are all blocked." However, as he is participating as a referee in the AFC-hosted tournament, the exclusion of allocation such as off-season training mentioned by the Korea Football Association has become virtually meaningless.
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*This content was translated by AI.
