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Japanese official Yuichi Nishimura has ended Ravshan Irmatov's dominance
of the AFC Referee of the Year award after claiming the individual accolade
ahead of the four-time winner from Uzbekistan and Iran's Alireza Mohammad
Faghani.
Nishimura's
quality shone through when he was entrusted with the potentially explosive
second-leg of the 2012 AFC Champions League semi-final between arch-Jeddah
rivals Al Ahli and Al Ittihad in what was his third appointment in this year's
edition of Asia's premier club competition.
In another
highlight of 2012 Nishimura was also involved in the Olympic Games, with the
40-year-old officiating the group stage fixtures between Brazil and Belarus and
hosts Great Britain and Uruguay, while the two-time J.League Referee of the Year
also took charge of two matches in the final round of Asian qualifiers for the
2014 FIFA World Cup as well as a Round 3 qualifier for the London Games.
Source: www.the-afc.com
