Abu Dhabi: After hanging up his boots in 1990, six years after starting his football career as a defender with Bani Yas, Fareed Ali became a referee, acquiring great experience in UAE and Asian football. He went on to become one of the elite Asian referees, according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Now, he supervises the Bani Yas senior team following his retirement from refereeing in 2011.
Ali officiated at a total of 103 international matches, including World Cup qualifiers, the finals of the Asian Cup, AFC Champions League games and Gulf Cup clashes. He also refereed League matches in the UAE, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Uzbekistan.
What's more, Ali refereed four finals of the President's Cup in the UAE, the last of which was in 2010, his final refereeing commitment.
He talked to Gulf News about his illustrious career, both on and off the field.
Gulf News: What is the difference between being on the field as a referee and off the field as the supervisor of a team?
Fareed Ali: When I was a referee, I was only worried about myself and how I could ensure the match was played fairly by applying the rules of the game. Now, I am worried about all the players of the team, the technical and administrative staff, and also the fans. Believe me, there are more pressures off the field than on it.
As a former Fifa referee, how do you assess the standards of refereeing in the domestic league this season?
The UAE officials have been largely successful, with an 85 per cent success rate in terms of decisions this season. I would like to express my gratitude to the UAE FA's Referees' Committee for their efforts in improving local referees. There are a number of young referees who have already shown great promise to be good international officials in the near future, and I am sure they will be a great credit to the UAE's game inside and outside their country.
Do you have any regrets about your refereeing career?
I wish I had taken part in the finals of the World Cup. I was so close to being selected to referee at the tournament in 2006, but I discovered that you don't have to be a good referee to be chosen and other factors come into play.
Let's talk about Bani Yas now. You finished runners-up in the League last season and are now ninth in the table. What happened?
At the start of the season, I feel the club did not bring in the right technical staff and we did not win in five League matches early on. In addition, we had to cope with the absence of many of our key players when they went away with their national teams, especially the UAE Olympic team. But things started to change for the better when Gabriel Calderón came in as manager and we moved up the table, did superbly in the AFC Champions League (CL) and reached the final of the President's Cup. I believe that Bani Yas have a lot of potential and, if Calderón stays in charge, then next season we will do better.
Bani Yas have a lot of excellent young players who have achieved great things with the UAE Olympic team, but the club have not yet won a trophy. What do you attribute this to?
I agree that this generation of players is highly gifted and talented, but they need more experience and they also need to win something to gain the winning mentality. We have made a lot of strides this season, especially in terms of blooding many young players like our goalkeeper Mohammad Khalaf, who has improved greatly by playing in the AFC CL, Sultan Al Ghafri, Fawaz Awana and many others. I hope the team will progress to the second round of the continental competition if we beat Pakhtakor this week.
What do you think about the professional league?
There is no consistency. For example, in the last season, Al Jazira won the title four weeks before the end of the season, while Al Ain were threatened by relegation. This season, Al Ain won the title three weeks before the end of the season and Al Jazira currently lie fourth. Bani Yas are a prime example of this inconsistency; last season, we finished second, and this season, we are ninth. A few years ago, the competition was tougher and the champions were only decided after the last match of the season because all the teams were of a similar standard. Now, there are big differences in quality between the teams, and you can almost decide from the start of the season which teams will compete for the title and which will be relegated.
Profile: career highlights
Fareed Ali was born on January 1, 1965. He played as a right back for Bani Yas from 1984 to 1990. He became a referee in 1990 and was on the Fifa refereeing list from 2000 until 2011, with 103 international matches under his belt. He refereed the opening and final matches of the AFC Youth Championship in Singapore in 2006 and the third-place play-off match in the 2004 Asian Cup in China. He was named best referee in the UAE four times. Ali was appointed supervisor of the Bani Yas first team in 2011.
