The Asian Football Confederation announced the appointment of the Chinese "Maning" to lead the Iraq match against Kuwait in the seventh round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

Manning, born in 1979, is considered one of the most prominent rulers of the Asian continent, as he began his international arbitration career in 2011.

He managed the Asian Cup final 2024 between Qatar and Jordan, which witnessed the calculation of three penalty kicks for the Qatari team, which sparked widespread controversy over his arbitration decisions.

Chinese referee Manning has a great experience in managing international matches, as he has previously led important and large confrontations in Asian Championships and the Asian World Cup qualifiers.

It is expected that he will perform his performance with careful follow -up, especially with the sensitivity of the meeting between Iraq and Kuwait, which is witnessing great competition between the two teams.

This match comes in an important stage of the qualifiers, as the Iraqi team seeks to achieve a positive result that enhances the chances of qualification, while the Kuwaiti team hopes to provide a strong performance against the Mesopotamian black team.

It is noteworthy that the Iraqi team is second in the second group of the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup with 11 points behind the leaders of the South Korean team with 14 points, while the Kuwait national team is ranked fifth with four points.