The 2023 Asian Cup has a female referee for the first time

The two main referees are Ms. Yoshimi Yamashita (Japan) and Katherine Jacewicz (Australia). The three assistant referees include Makoto Bozono, Naomi Teshigori (Japan) and Kim Kyoung-min (Korea).

Ms. Yamashita is most famous for being one of the first six female referees to attend the 2022 World Cup. The 37-year-old female referee was also assigned to be the fourth referee in the match England lost 0-1 to Spain in the 2023 Women's World Cup final. .

The 2022 World Cup is the first major men's tournament to have female referees, appearing in 13 matches. Stephanie Frappart (France) became the first female referee to officiate at this tournament, in Germany's 4-2 win over Costa Rica in the group stage, and also had two more matches as the fourth referee. Ms. Salima Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda) and Yoshimi Yamashita had three and six matches as fourth referees, respectively.

Assistant referee Neuza Back (Brazil) and Karen Medina (Mexico) only attended Germany's victory over Costa Rica with Frappart. Assistant Kathryn Nesbitt (USA) also attended one match but was the only one employed in the knockout round when England beat Senegal 3-0 in the round of 16.

At the 2023 Asian Cup, the Asian Football Confederation AFC invited 33 main referees and 35 assistant referees to perform duties. Each position has two additional reserves. Japan has the most referees with 8 people. Next are South Korea, Qatar (6 people), Australia, UAE (5), China, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia (4), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Syria, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand (3 ).

Referee Alireza Faghani (Iran) is the most experienced with her third participation in the tournament. He and Ma Ning (China), Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar), Mohammed Hassan (UAE) and Ms. Yamashita are the five main referees present at the 2022 World Cup.

AFC said that the 2023 Asian Cup has a record number of referees because all matches will apply VAR (Video Assistant Referees). The technology first appeared at the 2019 Asian Cup in the UAE but only applied from the quarterfinals.

The 2023 Asian Cup includes 24 teams, including four Southeast Asian representatives: Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Teams are grouped based on FIFA order. The 24 teams will be divided into six groups, each with four teams playing in a round robin. The top two teams in each group will continue, along with the four third-placed teams with high achievements, to the 1/8 round. Vietnam is in Group D with Indonesia, Iraq and Japan.

The 2023 Asian Cup was originally to take place in China, but because of Covid, this country could not host and ceded it to Qatar. The tournament takes place from January 12 to February 10, 2024 in five cities in Qatar - places that just hosted the 2022 World Cup.