Algerian international referee Mustapha Ghorbal is among the top nominees to officiate the final match of the 26th Arabian Gulf Cup between Oman and Bahrain on Saturday. Another two candidates in the list include Qatar’s Abdulrahman al Jassim and Iraq’s Muhannad Qasim. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) officials shortlisted for the match between the Egyptian Mahmood Ashoor and Chinese Fu Ming.
Algerian referee Ghorbal recently officiated Qatar and Kuwait match in the group matches of the Gulf Cup which ended by a 1-1 draw. He managed to deliver a strong performance with no significant controversies. He was assisted by his compatriots Djawad Ghorbal and Akram Zoughni while Turkish referee Halil Umut Meler served as the fourth official. The VAR technology was managed by Saudi referee Abdullah al Shahrani and assisted by Tunisian Haythem Kirat.
Ghorbal is ranked as one of the leading and premier referees in the African continent. He became an international referee in 2014. He was among the Best Referee in the World for 2024 according to a list released by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). In 2024, he had officiated the first leg of the Champions League final between ES Tunis and Al Ahly at the Hamadi-Agrebi Stadium in Rades. Another major milestone for the African referee is that he had officiated the final match of the 57th edition of the Algerian Cup in 2024 which featured between MC Alger and CR Belouizdad, concluding with a score of 0-1.
Qatar’s Abdulrahman al Jassim is one of the top referees in Asia. He was one of the referees in the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 as he had officiated the third-place playoff between Croatia and Morocco which ended for the latter by 2-1. In that match, Qatari referee was assisted by compatriots Taleb al Marri and Saoud Ahmed al Maqaled.
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