Alexander George King is an Australian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

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 title ...

. He is a full-time referee on the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

since 2019 and has been an international FIFA referee since 2020.

Biography

Born in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, where he attended

Bribie Island State High School Bribie Island State High School is a public co-educational secondary school located in the suburb of Bongaree on Bribie Island, Queensland, Australia. It is administered by the Queensland Department of Education, with an enrolment of 1,176 stude ...

, King began refereeing at the age of 13. King became a

fourth official In association football, an assistant referee (also known as a linesman) is an official who assists the referee in administering the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the Laws, at most organised levels ...

in the

in 2014, and the following year he made his debut as a referee in the league by replacing the injured Alan Milliner in the last ten minutes of the match between

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

and

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

. He was selected as one of the league's 13 referees for the 2017–18 season. In September 2019, King was named as one of

Football Australia Football Australia is the sports governing body, governing body of Soccer in Australia, soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Au ...

's three full-time referees alongside

Chris Beath Chris James Beath (born 17 November 1984) is an Australian former football referee in the A-League. Refereeing career He has refereed at the National Youth Championships in 2003 and in 2004. Beath was the referee of the tournament at the 2002 K ...

and

Shaun Evans Shaun Evans (born 6 March 1980) is an English actor. He is best known for playing a young Endeavour Morse in the ITV drama series '' Endeavour'' and Coxswain Elliot Glover in ''Vigil''. Early life Evans was born on 6 March 1980. He is a Li ...

, replacing

Jarred Gillett Jarred Gavan Gillett (born 1 November 1986) is an Australian soccer referee. He has been a referee in the Premier League, the top flight of the English football pyramid, since his promotion to the Select Group referees list in August 2021. F ...

who had moved to England; he had previously worked as a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenter ...

. At the turn of the year, he was added to the

FIFA International Referees List The FIFA International Referees List is an annual publication of the global list of FIFA international referees in the football-variants controlled by FIFA association football (outdoor football), futsal and beach soccer Beach soccer, also k ...

as one of five Australian male referees. King was appointed to the 2022 AFC Cup Final in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, Malaysia, as AVAR2, and was awarded Referee of the Year for the

2021–22 A-League Men The 2021–22 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the 45th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 17th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004. Melbourne Cit ...

season. On 17 December 2022, he was the referee in a Melbourne Derby between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory, when Victory fans stormed the pitch. He and City

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Tom Glover received head injuries by being struck with a metal bucket. King was a part of the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries and territories in Asia. The AFC was formed in 1954. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation ( ...

Referee Academy from 2018 to 2022, and was selected to officiate at the

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 5th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (prior to 2021 known as the AFC U-23 Championship), a biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the ...

, he was appointed to a single match between

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

. He was also selected to officiate at the

2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 6th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (previously the AFC U-23 Championship before rebranding from 2021), the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confeder ...

and was appointed a single match between

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. King was appointed to the

2024 A-League Men Grand Final The 2024 A-League Men Grand Final, known officially as the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final, was a soccer match that was played between Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Victory on 25 May 2024 at Central Coast Stadium in Gosford, Australia. The ...

as referee, between

Central Coast Mariners FC Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League, A-League Men, under Professional sports lea ...

and

Melbourne Victory FC Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under North American professional sports leag ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Alex Living people Sportsmen from Queensland Australian carpenters Australian soccer referees A-League Men referees Year of birth missing (living people)