According to "Varzesh Three", Khaled Al-Turais will officiate the match between Esteghlal and Shabab Al Ahli in the third week of the AFC Champions League Elite. Faisal Al-Qahtani and Ibrahim Al-Dakheel will serve as the assistant referees, and Japan's Rیو Tanimoto will be on the sideline as the fourth official.
Sami Al-Jريس will be in charge of the VAR room, and Faisal Al-Balawi will be the video assistant referee. Thus, except for the Japanese fourth official, all members of the officiating team have been chosen from Saudi Arabia. Al-Qahtani and Al-Dakheel are on Saudi Arabia's international assistant referees list, and Al-Jريس is also a FIFA-approved video match official.
Al-Turais began refereeing in 2008, and his first match in the Saudi Professional League dates back to September 2014. He entered the list of FIFA international referees in 2016. The 39-year-old referee has 146 matches in the Saudi League to his name.
One of the most important parts of Al-Turais's resume relates to the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar. The most prominent final recorded in his career is the match between Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal in the Saudi Super Cup, held in April 2024 in Abu Dhabi, where Al-Hilal won 4-1. He also refereed the Uzbekistan Cup final between Navbahor and Andijan, which ended 3-2 in favor of Andijan after 120 minutes.
This referee also officiated three matches at the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the most important of which was the match between Colombia and South Africa in the Round of 16. Al-Turais's name was also included in the list of referees for the 2026 World Cup, but his assignments in these matches were in the role of the fourth official, including the match between England and Congo in the Round of 32.
Interestingly, Khaled Al-Turais has not refereed any matches as a center referee for Esteghlal, other Iranian clubs, or Iran's national teams.
Source: Varzesh Three
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