The opening match of the Asian Cup in Qatar with the participation of the tournament hosts and the Lebanese national team has been entrusted to the Iranian referee Alireza Faghani, AFC reports.

For Faghani, this tournament will be the third in a row, and the match between Qatar and Lebanon will be the eighth at the Asian Cup.

In terms of the number of Asian Cup matches, Faghani ranks third among Asian referees. He tied with current AFC refereeing director Shamsul Maidin, behind only Saad Kamil from Kuwait (9) and record holder Ravshan Irmatov from Uzbekistan (14).

An international team from Australia and the Republic of Korea has been appointed to assist Fagani. For the first time in the history of AFC tournaments, a female referee, Margaret Jaswich from Australia, will work as an assistant VAR.

Also, in the opening match, a semi-automatic offside detection system will be used for the first time. It will complement the VAR video assistance system already used at all matches of the tournament.

Let us remind you that the Asian Cup starts in Qatar on Friday, January 12. Qatar and Lebanon will play the first match of the tournament at the Lusail Stadium. Fagani's starting whistle will sound at 21:00 Ashgabat time.

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