Referee of U17 Vietnam - UAE match had a rare incident

The two referees struggled to catch their breath while changing batteries in the middle of the match.

In the 65th minute of the match at King Fahd Stadium (Saudi Arabia), referee Mohammed Al-Shammari asked the U17 Vietnam and U17 UAE teams to stop the match and go to the sidelines to ask the fourth referee to replace the walkie-talkie battery. After nearly 2 minutes of handling the problem, the referees brought the match back to life.

The image of two referees fumbling with the battery was captured on television. At the time of replacing the battery, U17 Vietnam was temporarily leading U17 UAE 1-0.

The referee's walkie-talkie battery running out in the middle of a match is a rare case in Asian and world football. Because normally, referees often prepare very carefully before the match, replacing (or fully charging) wireless communication devices before entering the match.

The refereeing team for the match includes main referee Mohammed Al-Shammari, assistant referee 1 Yousuf Aref Al-Shamari from Qatar, assistant referee 2 Ashraf Abuzubaida from Palestine and table referee Mahmoud Alsawalmeh from Jordan. Mohammed Al-Shammari was the table referee when Indonesia beat Vietnam 1-0 in the first leg of the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup in early 2024.

In the final round of Group B, U17 Vietnam only needs to beat UAE to qualify for the quarterfinals (and win a ticket to the 2025 U17 World Cup) without having to care about the results of the remaining match at the same time between U17 Japan and U17 Australia.

Source: https://znews.vn/trong-tai-tran-u17-viet-nam-uae-gap-su-co-hy-huu-post1544888.html