Asian (AFC) - Road to WC 1998

AFC (Asia)
Masayoshi Okada   Kim Young-joo   Abdulrahman Al-Zaid   Saad Al-Fadhli   Mohd Nazri Abdullah   Jamal Al-Sharif   Pirom Un-Prasert   Ali Bujsaim	JPN (1958) KOR (1957) KSA (1959) KUW (1963) MAS (1954) SYR (1954) THA (1953) UAE (1959)

Asian refereeing entered it's fourth World Cup under the gaze of Farouk Bouzo, and for the all-powerful Syrian, this was the tournament where it all came together. 

No fourth World Cup for Jamal Al-Sharif

There are two referees that can be ruled out quite quickly - despite refereeing the recent Asian Cup final and being under FIFA's watch for World Cup 1994, Mohd Nazri Abdullah from Malaysia never had too big a chance for 1998; another referee from his (AESAN) region was in focus. 

Syrian Jamal Al-Sharif was actually age eligible for a record-setting fourth World Cup finals (aged forty-four), but it's fair to say that he wasn't terribly welcome back after the controversy generated by his Mexico - Bulgaria performance stateside. Mr Bouzo had a new enfant chéri. 

Who was Farouk Bouzo you might ask? This Syrian man is the reason so many referees from the Arab world attended (and went far in) World Cups from 1986 to 2002. An excellently connected man (very good friends with João Havelange), director of AFC refereeing since 1983, Bouzo put more emphasis on physical condition over technical accuracy, hence the progress of Al-Sharif. 

His new project was the Emrati Ali Bujsaim. Bujsaim attended World Cup 1994 ahead of Shin'ichirō Obata, where despite avoiding big controversy, he left an impression that was ambivalent at best. Having gotten the third-place playoff four years previous, Bujsaim entered 1998 as a big name.

I don't know whether this third-place appointment was just simple lobbying on Bouzo's part or genuine foresight (Al-Sharif is reaching the end, let's prepare someone for 1998 and beyond), but in any case, the Syrian general had his man. 

The race then for the second Arab place was between Abdulrahman Al-Zaid and Saad Al-Fadhli. The Kuwaiti would get his chance in 2002, it was the more-favoured Al-Zaid, eg. attending AFCON 1998, who was smiling after reading the origin KSA amongst the referees list for France (or perhaps they were both smiling ;)).

It would be remise not to mention that the rise of the Thai Pirom Un-Prasert internationally coincided with that of his association president Worawi Makudi in FIFA. Un-Prasert got the fledgling Confederation Cup's final in 1997, where he correctly issued a red card and also fell for a Ronaldo dive to give a penalty. 

Un-Prasert scored a remarkable achievement for an ASEAN ref to attend the World Cup finals, one which must illicit a lot of pride for him; his appointment on opening day shows how politically significant he was. 

With Chung Mong-joon, Korea were the politically more powerful of the 2002 co-hosts in refereeing (see Park Hae-yong in 1994). Despite their best attempts, Kim Young-joo was determined as not ready enough for this World Cup, and was furiously prepared to enter his home tournament ready to reach something big.

Japan is the East Asian nation with the strongest tradition in refereeing, and 1994 was the only time in the 1986-present era where they did not have a referee selected. Their top referee Masayoshi Okada, in charge of the first leg of the OFC playoff (Al-Sharif the second), got the call for France. 

Referees:

Masayoshi Okada (JPN)

Abdulrahman Al-Zaid (KSA)

Pirom Un-Prasert (THA)

Ali Bujsaim (UAE)

Assistant Referees:

Jeon Young-hyun (KOR)

Hussain Ghadanfari (KUW)

Halim Abdul Hamid (MAS)

Mohamed Al-Musawi (OMA)

Nimal Wickramatunge (SRI)

NB: Wickramatunge is the only AR at World Cup 1998 to have entered the list as a referee (1990), and then converted to the assistants' list. Eugene Brazzale did the reverse.