Matthew Cream - AFC (mens) AR of the year

[Red-4-Life]

KUALA LUMPUR: Australian World Cup hopeful Matthew Cream on Tuesday won the AFC Assistant Referee of the Year Award for men after his consistent performances running the line in 2009.

Cream earn the nod ahead of rivals Toru Sagara, of Japan, and Kyrgyzstan’s Bahadyr Kochkarov.

"This is an absolute honour for me to win this Award this evening," said Cream. "It is especially great in this Asian Referees Year, which shows that the AFC is recognising the importance of referees in Asia."
Assistant referees play a crucial role in ensuring a successful match by providing the referee with an extra pair of eyes as he or she patrols the sidelines.

The AFC Assistant Referee of the Year Award for men is based on the points awarded for performances by the referee assessor in each match. These points are collated and compared in a structured system (in which other assistant referees are included) before a winner is finally decided.

First, the grades of those assistant referees who have officiated in at least five matches up to the end of June 2009 involving the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, AFC Asian Cup 2011 qualification, AFC Champions League and AFC Cup are examined.

From these, the AFC identifies those assistant referees who have officiated in at least one match after September 2009 involving the latter stages of the same tournaments.

The AFC then collates the grades of those remaining and takes the highest five grades from each nominee for the four tournaments.

The top five nominees are identified and the winner is finalised by an Appointment Sub Committee, taking into consideration the following factors:

• Assistant Referees whose overall average is 8.4 and below and those who have obtained grades 8.4 and below more than twice should not be selected
• Grades by Video Assessors are consideration, if necessary
• Importance and difficulty of each match
• Consistency of performance

Cream proved to be the deserving winner of the 2009 AFC Assistant Referee of the Year Award, for his outstanding performances in important matches this year, including the third and fourth place match of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 in South Africa and the AFC Champions League final.

Cream obtained an outstanding average of 9.02 for his matches and was deemed to be a worthy winner of the AFC Assistant Referee of the Year Award.
uring their play the game in the best spirit.


http://www.the-afc.com/en/afc-annual-aw ... -australia


Congrats to Matthew Cream!!! This is great for Australian football and also for the FFSA. He well deserved the award and hope to see him at the World Cup in 2010!