April 15 – FIFA has announced its team of 117 match officials who will oversee the inaugural 32-team FIFA Club World Cup in the United States this summer — a landmark tournament that will also serve as a testing ground for new officiating technologies and rule adaptations.
Referees, assistants, and video officials from 41 member associations have been selected following an ‘extensive preparation programme’ involving cross-confederation seminars. In total, 35 referees, 58 assistant referees and 24 video match officials will officiate at the month-long event, which kicks off on 14 June and concludes on 13 July across 12 stadiums in 11 US cities.
FIFA Referees Committee chairman Pierluigi Collina described the opportunity as “a privilege” for those appointed to what the world governing body has termed ‘Team One’.
“As every new competition starts, the selected referees are among those who have the privilege to be part of this for the first time, so I’m sure that all the match officials will be thrilled,” he said.
“We are coming from high standard performances delivered during the last FIFA tournaments. So, the bar is higher and when you get the bar higher, it’s more difficult to keep the standard. But we are working very hard and Team One will make a solid contribution to the success of this exciting competition.”
“I like to compare the preparation of a football team and a referee team because both need to work hard and deliver to the highest standards,” noted FIFA Director of Refereeing Massimo Busacca.
“We try to find as much uniformity and consistency as possible in what we are doing because football is the same everywhere, but we know that we have to understand the different mentality in football, and this is crucial.”
In a notable innovation, referees will wear body cameras for the first time in a FIFA tournament, with live feeds made available to fans via DAZN, the exclusive global broadcaster of the competition.
The initiative — supported by IFAB (the International Football Association Board) — is being trialled as part of FIFA’s push to improve transparency and referee safety while evaluating potential future applications.
“We think that it is a good chance to offer the viewers a new experience, in terms of images taken from a perspective, from an angle of vision, which was never offered before,” said Collina.
“It also has a purpose in terms of referee coaching because, of course, having the possibility to see what the referee sees is important in the debriefing, to evaluate how the call was made by the referee. So, it’s a combination of a new experience for broadcasters and also for coaching purposes.”
The Club World Cup will also be the first major tournament to implement a newly approved rule targeting time-wasting by goalkeepers. Under the revised laws, if a goalkeeper holds onto the ball for more than eight seconds (monitored using a visible five-second countdown), the opposing team will be awarded a corner kick rather than the current indirect free-kick. The change is designed to improve game flow and limit deliberate delays.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1744763833labto1744763833ofdlr1744763833owedi1744763833sni@g1744763833niwe.1744763833yrrah1744763833