Muhammad Taqi Aljaafari Bin Jahari (born 25 October 1986) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He has been a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

listed referee since 2012, and has also refereed a number of

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

matches. Taqi Aljaafari has also refereed matches in the

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 17th FIFA U-17 World Cup, a biennial international football tournament contested by men's under-17 national teams. Organised by FIFA, the tournament took place in India between 6 and 28 October 2017, after the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Career

Taqi became a Fifa-listed referee in 2012. In 2013, he officiated the RHB Singapore Cup Final 2013 between Tanjong Pagar United Football Club and

Home United Football Club Lion City Sailors Football Club, commonly referred to as The Sailors or LCS, is a Singaporean professional football club competing in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of the Singapore football league system. Since the 2021 season, the ...

, which Home United won 4–1. In 2014, he had a double in his career. He refereed the 2014 Singapore Charity Shield and 2014 RHB Singapore Cup Final. He was also award with S.League referee of the year itself. In 2015, he was sent to Australia for being one of the support referees for the

2015 AFC Asian Cup The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 2015. The tournament was ...

with his assistant Jeffrey Goh. In May 2017, he became one of the video referees for the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as ...

In South Korea. In July, he officiated the

2017 International Champions Cup The 2017 International Champions Cup (or ICC) was the fifth edition of a series of friendly association football matches, organized to simulate a tournament. It began on 18 July and ended on 30 July 2017. Teams Matches China ---- ---- ...

match in Singapore between English champions Chelsea and German champions

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. It ended with a 3–2 for Bayern. Taqi was named AFF Referee Of The Year 2017. In October 2017, he was sent to India to officiate 2 group stage matches in the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. He officiated the 2017 Singapore Cup Final between Albirex Niigata (S) and

Global Cebu F.C. Global Football Club was a professional football club that last played in the Philippines Football League (PFL), the top flight of Philippines' club football. The club has won four league titles, two UFL Cups, one UFL FA Cup, and one PFF Nati ...

He was selected by AFC for the

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 ...

held in the UAE to officiate some matches. He was sent to Poland to officiate some matches for the

2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 ...

. In 2021, Taqi was Singapore's first Fifa

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee. The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...

(VAR) and officiated at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

held at Japan. In 2022, Taqi was selected as a VAR to officiate the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Personal life

Taqi is married and has two sons and a daughter.

FIFA tournaments

AFC Asian Cup

Honours

*S. League Referee Of The Year, 2014 *AFF Referee Of The Year, 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taqi, Muhammad 1986 births Living people Singaporean football referees AFC Asian Cup referees Singaporean people of Iranian descent