Too soon to talk about officiating W Cup final

Alireza Faghani together with linesmen Reza Sokhandan and Mohammad Mansouri officiated one of the most important matches of Round of 16 between Argentina and France football teams which ended with a 4-3 victory for Les Bleus.

Answering a question regarding the possibility of selecting him for the competition’s final, he told ILNA, “many referees are here and all of them have come to officiate the final and have chance.”

“However, I officiate in a way that if they tell me to go [leave World Cup] now, I can keep my head high,” he said, adding, “I advance match by match and don’t want to talk about the final for now.”

When asked about his view on FIFA decisions on selecting him for officiating difficult games, Faghani said that there are no easy games in the World Cup. “It is possible that a matches ends with a 5-0 result but referees’ decisions would be disputed.”

Touching upon Saturday’s France-Argentina match, the Iranian referee said, “Thanks God, it was a good game and had 7 correct goals. There were many conflicts during the game but fortunately, no team objected referees after the match.”

Born in 1978, Alireza Faghani has been on the international list of referees since 2008 and has officiated important matches like 2014 AFC Champions League Final, 2015 AFC Asian Cup Final, 2015 FIFA Club World Cup Final and 2016 Olympic Football Final.

MAH