The Japanese referee’s error caused the UAE team to lose to Iraq

The former Emirati international referee, Yacoub Al Hammadi, considered that the decisions of Japanese referee Yusuke Araki in the UAE-Iraq match, which ended with a 2-1 victory for the Mesopotamian Lions, had a significant and direct impact on the outcome of the match and the Whites’ loss 1-2, thus exiting from the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Al-Hammadi told “Emirates Today”: “The match was very difficult, and Al-Abyad performed well, and succeeded in imposing his style in most of the periods of the match, but what was clearly noted was the presence of serious interventions by some of the Iraqi national team players, led by Hussein Ali, in the 34th and 37th minutes, as the player made reckless interventions and deserved a red card, and therefore he should have been expelled from the match, but the referee overlooked that, and contented himself with giving him only one card, and this decision had an impact.” Directly against Al-Abyad, because if the player had been expelled, he would have given the UAE national team a numerical advantage for more than 53 minutes, and this would have undoubtedly changed the course of the match completely.”
Al Hammadi added: “I want to praise the first assistant referee, who performed his role in a professional and effective manner. He was precise in his decisions, including the first goal scored by Caio Lucas, in which there was no suspicion of offside. He also canceled another goal by the same player due to clear offside, which requires respect for his technical decisions in important matches.”
Al-Hammadi touched on the penalty kick that was awarded against the Emirati team, and said: “The decision to award the penalty kick was 100% correct after the intervention of video technology, as the player Yahya Nader’s hand was not in its natural position, preventing the ball from passing towards the goal. The decision was fair and did not contain any incorrect judgment on the part of the referee, but rather it is a sound application of the laws.”