At the AFC Asian Cup, which will be hosted in Qatar in January–February 2024, female referees will officiate for the first time. Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan will be in charge of the group of five female match officials appointed for Asia's most important men's national team competition. Yoshimi is one of six historically chosen female officials for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The tournament, which is slated to take place over nine venues from 12 January to 10 February 2024, has hired a record-breaking 74 match officials. From the 18 member associations, a total of 35 referees and 39 assistant referees, plus two standby nominees for each position, have been chosen.
On the other hand, the most seasoned male officials are Abdulrahman Al-Jassim of Qatar, who handled the 2022 World Cup third-place playoff between Croatia and Morocco, and Alireza Faghani, who will be refereeing in his third AFC Asian Cup. Before all appointed match officials assemble in Qatar for a seven-day pre-competition course, the appointed referees will meet in Kuala Lumpur in October for a final session.
In Qatar, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system will make its complete debut after being successfully used in the United Arab Emirates during the previous edition of the quarterfinal round.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) organises the AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international men's association football tournament of Asia. It is in its 18th iteration in 2023. With the addition of 24 national teams in 2019, Qatar will be the reigning champion. India is placed in Group B, alongside rival nations Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria.
