Malaysian referee Rita Ghani was named as the AFC Women's Referee of the Year.

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Rita Ghani AFC Referee of the Year

On the glorious night of the AFC's 60 year anniversary, at the AFC Annual Awards in Manila 2014, Malaysian referee Rita Ghani was named as the AFC Women's Referee of the Year.

The 37-year old female beat off tough competition from officials such as Sachiko Yamagishi of Japan and Pannipar Kamnueng of Thailand to bring home the award.

According to Rita, she said “I feel very happy as I never thought I’d win this award. I am actually really shocked, but very happy to win the award."

Rita also described her experience of refereeing the game between Australia and Korea Republic in the semi-final of the 2014 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Vietnam.

"All the women’s referees just like the men, dream of refereeing at the FIFA World Cup and that’s my dream too and my goal, to referee at next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. And I hope an award like this will take me a step closer to fulfilling that dream," added Rita.

Meanwhile, Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club from Australia won the AFC Club of the Year, beating of the likes of Al Qadsia of Kuwait and Turkmenistan’s AFC President Cup 2014 winners FC HTTU. Western Sydney Wanderers became the first Australian side to be crowned continental club champions after beating Al-Hilal 1-0 on aggregate in the AFC Cup final.

Saudi Arabia’s Nassir Al Shamrani took home the AFC Player ;of the Year award. The Al-Hilal player beat Al Ain’s Ismail Ahmed and Al Sadd’s Khalfan Ibrahim to take home the award. Other winners at the awards ceremony included former Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan who won AFC Foreign Player of the Year, and Mile Jedinak of Crystal Palace, who won the International Player of the Year.

Full list of Winners at AFC Annual Awards 2014

1. AFC Diamond of Asia: Junji Ogura ;(Japan)
2. AFC Men's Player of the Year: Nassir Al Shamrani ;(Al Hilal / Saudi Arabia)
3. AFC Women's Player of the Year: Katrina Lee Gorry ;(Australia)
4. AFC Club of the Year: Western Sydney Wanderers ;(Australia)
5. AFC Women Referee of the Year: Rita Binti Ghani ;(Malaysia)
6. AFC Referee of the Year: Ravshan Irmatov ;(Uzbekistan)
7. AFC Coach of the Year: Tony Popovic ;(Western Sydney Wanderers / Australia)
8. AFC Women's Coach of the Year: Asako Takemoto ;(Japan U-17)
9. AFC Fair Play Association of the Year: Korea Republic
10. AFC National Team of the Year: Palestine
11. AFC President Recognition Award for Grassroots: ;India, ;Philippines and Tajikistan
12. AFC Developing MA of the Year: DPR Korea
13. AFC Inspiring MA of the Year: Japan
14. AFC Aspiring MA of the Year: Kyrgyz Republic
15. AFC Dream Asia Award: Qatar
16. AFC Foreign Player of the Year: Asamoah Gyan (Al Hilal / Ghana)
17. International Player of the Year: Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace / Australia)
18. AFC Corporate Icon Award: TV Asahi and NHK ;(Japan)