The opening ceremony honoured eight referees and assistant referees who were presented the AFC Referees Memento Award. The officials were recognised for their outstanding service in raising the refereeing standards in Asia.

Kari Seitz, Women’s World Cup project leader for FIFA, shares her insights on the role of women referees in an exclusive interview with the-AFC.com.

AFC Elite referee Edita Mirabidova, AFC Academy assistant Educator Widiya Habibah Shamsuri and AFC Referees Department Women’s Manager Pannipar Kamnueng share their insights on the challenges and what it takes to be a top female referee.

United Arab Emirates' Ebrahim Almansory, Malaysia's Suhaimi Mat Hassan, Bakhtiyor Namazov from Uzbekistan and Shao Liang of China PR will form the Asian contigent.

They will be joined by 20 referees from 20 countries to take charge of the matches.

Faghani recently made the decision to migrate to Australia from the Islamic Republic of Iran for family reasons and as a result FFA offered him a contract to officiate in the A-League.

A total of 39 referee directors from across the Continent participated in the bi-annual event aimed at providing the Member Associations' (MAs) Referees Departments with support and guidance to professionalise refereeing administration and education programmes at the MA level. 

AFC Referees Committee Deputy Chairperson Hany Taleb B S Al-Raeesi, who gave the closing remarks, said: “I believe we have gained some useful insights during this workshop and I know every one of you is fully committed to ensuring the success of our officials.

An eight-time referee-of-the-year in the women's W-League, she was one of 11 officials named on the A-League's referees panel.

"Kate is without doubt one of the leading referees in the world at any level and we congratulate her on the appointment to the A-League referees panel," said Football Federation Australia President Mr. Chris Nikou.