DOHA: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has awarded three match officials, Abu Bakar Al Amri from Oman and Fahad Al Mirdasi and Abdulah Al Shalwai, both from Saudi Arabia, with the AFC Special Award for Referees. The awards were handed over to the refereeing trio who featured at the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup final by Chairman of the AFC Competitions Committee Saoud Mohannadi who is also the Vice President of Qatar Football Association (QFA). The ceremony took place in Doha, Qatar, at the referees’ preparation course ahead of the AFC U23 Championship, which kicks off on Tuesday. AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said: “Asian refereeing is world class, as constantly proven by the international performances of our top referees like Abu Bakar Al Amri, Fahad Al Mirdasi and Abdulah Al Shalwai. This prestigious award is the AFC’s way to thank these top referees for their contribution to Asian football.” Al Mirdasi, Saudi compatriot Abdulah Al Shalwai and Abu Bakar Al Amri of Oman, who are both AFC Assistant Referees, oversaw the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup final where Serbia defeated Brazil 2-1 after extra time. Al Mirdasi was also the fourth official of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 final between eventual champions Australia and Korea Republic, and took charge of the Oman v Kuwait and Jordan v Iraq group stage matches. The 30-year-old also officiated five AFC Champions League 2015 group stage ties, three AFC U-19 Championship 2016 qualifiers as well as a match in the FIFA World Cup 2018/AFC Asian Cup 2019 Preliminary Round 2 joint-qualifiers.