Moatasem Abdullah (Abu Dhabi)
International referee Adel Al Naqbi and his crew, which included Ahmed Al Rashidi (first assistant) and Sabt Obaid (second assistant), inaugurated the UAE’s appearance in the “33rd edition” of the Paris 2024 Olympics, when they managed the Guinea-New Zealand match at Nice Stadium, in the first round of the under-23 football competitions in the tournament, for Group One.
The refereeing crew for the match included, in addition to the Emirati names, Kyrgyz Veronika Bernatskaya (fourth referee), Qatari Khamis Al-Marri (video referee), and Dutchman Rob DeBrink (assistant video referee).
The match witnessed New Zealand’s victory over Guinea 2-1. New Zealand missed a penalty kick awarded by Al-Naqbi in the 24th minute, which was taken by Matthew Jarrett, before the player quickly made up for it by scoring a goal in the 25th minute.
Guinea equalised through Amadou Diawara in the 72nd minute, before Benjamin Wynne scored the winning goal for New Zealand in the 76th minute.
The selection of the UAE international refereeing team, led by Adel Al Naqbi, within the football competitions at the Paris Olympics, came after the distinguished performance he provided during his management of a number of matches in the last edition of the AFC Champions League, and the joint Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup.
Our Emirati crew recently managed the Al-Zawraa and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya match on May 27, at Al-Madinah Stadium, as part of the “31st round” of the Iraqi Premier League, followed by its participation in the Asian Federation Seminar for Elite Referees, hosted by the Saudi capital, Riyadh, from June 24 to 28, in preparation for the continental competitions in the new season.
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