Former international football referee Abdullah Al-Ajil confirmed that the performance of the field referees in the first round of the ADNOC Professional League for the 2024-2025 season, which concluded last Saturday, was not convincing, and the refereeing in general did not appear at the required level, although he expected a better appearance with the start of the league, noting that the technical performance of the teams in the first round was also not up to the level of ambition, considering that the refereeing errors did not affect the results of the matches, as the matches in which refereeing errors occurred ended with a big win, such as the Al-Orouba and Al-Nasr match, which ended with the latter winning (5-1) despite the fact that the match witnessed the failure to award a clear penalty kick to the Al-Orouba team, stressing that the first round also witnessed strong tests for some referees through the important and influential refereeing cases that occurred in it, specifically inside the 18-yard box.
Abdullah Al-Ajil stressed the importance of more focus by the referees to avoid influential refereeing errors.
“One of the most prominent refereeing incidents in the first round of the league was the failure to award a penalty kick in favour of Al-Orouba team during its match against Al-Nasr, as there was a clear handball, and it was not awarded either by the referee or the video assistant referee (VAR). In the Al-Wahda and Ajman match, a penalty kick that did not exist was awarded in favour of Ajman team, which was wasted by the team’s player Walid Azaro, in the final minutes of the match, as the video assistant referee did not call the referee to watch the incident again before awarding the penalty kick,” he told Al-Emarat Al-Youm.
He added, “Regarding the match between Shabab Al-Ahli and Al-Bataeh, the most prominent refereeing incident was the referee cancelling a penalty kick that he had awarded in favour of Al-Bataeh, after the intervention of the (video referee), as the decision to call the field referee by the video referee was sound and timely.”
The first round of the league witnessed the scoring of 27 goals, and the awarding of two penalty kicks to Sharjah and Ajman teams. The round also witnessed the issuance of one direct red card, which was given to Dibba Al-Hisn player, Ibrahima Cisse.
Al-Ajil added, “Regarding the Al-Jazira and Bani Yas match, the referee awarded a correct and clear penalty kick to Bani Yas due to an obstruction, but he cancelled the kick after the (video referee) intervened, due to an offside situation before the penalty kick was awarded. I wish the decision to award the offside situation had been taken by the assistant referee.”
He said, “In the first round, I noticed that there were many refereeing decisions inside the 18-yard box, as well as many tackles. Some of these refereeing decisions were not made by the field referees, and others were made by the video referee, and there were cases in which neither the field referees nor the video referees intervened.”
• The first round of the league witnessed 27 goals scored, and two penalty kicks were awarded to Sharjah and Ajman.
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