Jeddah: Ilgiz Tantashev will be the man in the middle on Saturday evening when Al Ahli Saudi FC and FC Machida Zelvia meet in the AFC Champions League Elite (ACL Elite) 2025/26™ Final at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium.

This will be the second time that the Uzbek referee has been tasked to oversee the finale of the Continent’s elite men’s club tournament, having taken charge of the second leg between Al Ain FC and Yokohama F. Marinos in the 2023/24 edition. It will be his eighth match assignment of this edition, having refereed one Quarter-final, one Round of 16 and five League Stage fixtures.

Tantashev will be supported on the field by assistant referees (AR) Andrey Tsapenko of Uzbekistan and Zhou Fei of China PR, with Ma Ning of China PR serving as the fourth official. It is Tsapenko’s third AR assignment in an ACL Final after 2019 (second leg) and 2023/24 (second leg) and Zhou’s second after 2022 (second leg), while Ma was twice appointed as the main referee in 2018 (first leg) and 2022 (second leg). .....

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