Khalil Ibrahim Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia), Matthew Breeze (Australia), Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan), Mohd Salleh Subkhiddin (Malaysia) and Yuichi Nishimura (Japan) made it to the first list of probables from which the definitive list will be chosen.

All of the preselected referees have attended various seminars organised by FIFA and officiated at FIFA competitions since the process began at the end of 2006.

The criteria applied for the selection included technical, physical, medical and psychological tests, as well as the referees’ performances in international matches. The same process will be used when making the final selection, which will take place in early 2010.