Football referee Alireza Faghani is all set to officiate in the Club World Cup 2025 final
Find out who is Alireza Faghani as social media enthusiasts, especially footballs fans are looking up more information about the 47-year-old former player, who is making waves online after it was revealed that an Iranian-Australian is appointed as the referee of the FIFA World Cup 2025 final.
Not sure of what we are talking about? Worry not, here’s the brief.
Who is Alireza Faghani, 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final referee Alireza Faghani: Bio, age, wife, nationality, religion and career stats
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Earlier, reports emerged indicating that Alireza Faghani who is widely known as Behrooz, will be officiating Sunday’s final between PSG vs Chelsea FC.
The former football player was selected as the final referee on Friday at New York Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. As per the information, this will be Alireza Faghani’s fourth match as an in-charge at the Club World Cup 2025.
In addition, he is the second Australian to take charge of the FIFA’s showpiece match after Chris Beath, who officiated the match in 2021.
Age 47 Faghani will be joined at MetLife Stadium by assistant referees Anton Shchetinin and Ashley Beecham, both Australian compatriots, as well as fourth official Facundo Tello and reserve assistant referee Gabriel Chade, both of Argentina. The video assistant referee (VAR) will be Germany’s Bastian Dankert and he’ll be supported by Nicaraguan assistant VAR Tatiana Guzmán and Croatian support VAR Ivan Bebek.
Who is Alireza Faghani?
For the curious, Alireza Faghani is an Iranian-Australian international football referee, who has been on the FIFA international referee list since 2008. Earlier, he officiated in the Persian Gulf Pro league until 2022.
Born on March 21, 1978 in a Muslim family, Faghani is 47-year-old, and is the son of a former football referee, Mohammad Faghan, and the elder brother of Mohammadreza, who referees in Sweden. As a teenager, Alireza was a part of the youth team of Bank Melli. He also played for Etka, Shahab Khodro, and Niroye Zamini. Additionally, the former player also played in Iran’s League 2.
Career
Alireza began his refereeing career in 2008 with FIFA, only a year after officiating in the top league in Iran. After only one year’s experience as an international referee, Faghani took charge of the AFC President’s Cup Final in 2009. A year after in 2010, he again officiated in the final of the AFC Challenge Cup.
His full career stats can be found here.
🏆 Legendary referee Pierluigi Collina announcing Alireza Faghani as the referee for the FIFA Club World Cup final.
A moment of pride. 💚🤍❤️ pic.twitter.com/cCPXo6k0wU
— Persian Soccer (@prznsoccer) July 12, 2025
Faghani also refereed the Bangladesh Super Cup in 2009, which was held between Dhaka Mohammedan vs Dhaka Abahani. Witnessing his career’s growth, he was appointed as the referee of the AFC Asian Cup Final in 2015. He also oversaw the 2018 AFF Championship final between Vietnam vs Malayasia in its second leg.
Alireza Faghani was honoured with Iranian referee of the year awards on a number of occasions including in 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and Asian referee of the year award in 2016 and 2018.
Alireza Faghani previously refereed at the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup tournaments and took charge of the Men’s tournament final at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
His Instagram account which goes by name @alirezafaghani_ has garnered over 740K followers. As per his Instagram profile, Faghani is married and has kids but the details of his family members aren’t known.
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