Ravshan Irmatov

Ravshan Sayfiddinovich Irmatov was born on 9 August 1977 in Tashkent into a football family: his father also refereed in Soviet competitions. He has also worked as a teacher.

He refereed in the Uzbek League in 2000–2019 and was a FIFA-listed referee in 2003–2019. At the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada he took charge of group matches and was fourth official for the final; at the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup he refereed the Al Ahly–Pachuca quarter-final and the LDU Quito–Manchester United final.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa he refereed the opening match (South Africa–Mexico), England–Algeria and the Uruguay–Netherlands semi-final; according to sources he was the youngest referee to take charge of a World Cup opening match since 1934. He refereed the 2011 Club World Cup final (Santos–Barcelona) and the 2011 AFC Asian Cup final (Australia–Japan). At the 2012 London Olympics he refereed group matches and the bronze-medal match between South Korea and Japan.

At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil he refereed Switzerland–Ecuador, Croatia–Mexico, USA–Germany and the Netherlands–Costa Rica quarter-final. He refereed a 2015 Asian Cup semi-final (Australia–UAE), served as a video assistant referee at the 2017 Confederations Cup, and refereed the second leg of the 2017 AFC Champions League final. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia he refereed Argentina–Croatia and Spain–Morocco, and in 2019 he refereed the Asian Cup final (Japan–Qatar); his 11 World Cup matches are a record for a referee.

His honours include ten Uzbekistan Referee of the Year awards (2006–2015), five AFC Referee of the Year awards (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014), the Globe Soccer Best Referee award (2015), the Order «El-yurt hurmati» (2014) and the Order «Buyuk xizmatlari uchun» (2015). Since June 2019 he has been first vice-president of the Uzbekistan Football Association, and in 2023 he was elected the central zone's representative on the AFC Executive Committee.