Four Australians to referee at 2022 FIFA World Cup

One-hundred and twenty-nine officials were named for the upcoming World Cup, including four Australians. This men’s World Cup will also be the first to feature women’s match officials in the competitions history.

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Match Officials

36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials were named for the upcoming World Cup.
Four of those named are Australian.
Six women were also appointed, a first for a men’s World Cup.

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Whether or not the Socceroos qualify for the upcoming World Cup, Australia will represented. FIFA released the list of referees, assistant referees and video match officials who will officiate at the upcoming World Cup, a list which includes four Australians.

A-League referee Chris Beath was named to the 36 referees. Two Australians were named as assistant referees, Ashley Beecham and Anton Schetinin. Both currently work as match officials in Qatar. Shaun Evans was named as a VAR official.

One other referee named who is familiar to Australians is Alirea Faghani. The Iranian regularly referees in the A-League and was listed as one of the 36 referees for this year’s Cup.

“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide,” said the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina.

“The 2018 World Cup was very successful, partly because of the high standard of refereeing, and we will do our best to be even better in a few months in Qatar.”

One of the major changes announced to this year’s officiating group is the inclusion of women. Six women were named, France’s Stéphanie Frappart, Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga, Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita, Brazil’s Neuza Back, Mexico’S Karen Díaz Medina and the USA’s Kathryn Nesbitt.

“We have been able to call up female match officials for the first time in the history of a FIFA World Cup,” added Collina.

“This concludes a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees at FIFA men’s junior and senior tournaments.

“In this way, we clearly emphasise that it is quality that counts for us and not gender. I would hope that in the future, the selection of elite women’s match officials for important men’s competitions will be perceived as something normal and no longer as sensational. They deserve to be at the FIFA World Cup™ because they constantly perform at a really high level, and that’s the important factor for us.”

The 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place from November 21 to December 18, 2022 in Qatar.

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