FIFA Reveals Full List of Referees for 2026 World Cup

All six confederations will send match officials to the 48-team tournament.

2022 World Cup final referee Szymon Marciniak will be involved. | IMAGO/NurPhoto

The landscape is becoming increasingly clear for the 2026 World Cup, with FIFA now announcing all the match officials selected for this summer’s tournament.

The World Cup organizers revealed 170 officials will feature in North America, with 52 referees, 88 assistant referees and 30 video assistant referees employed across the five-week festival of soccer.

All six confederations are represented among the refereeing at the tournament, but the bulk of those chosen hail from soccer powerhouses in Europe and South America. That being said, there is plenty of host nation representation, too.

Here is a breakdown of all 52 referees for the 2026 World Cup.

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Full List of 2026 World Cup Referees

Tori Penso is one of two American referees. | Wagner Meier—FIFA/FIFA/Getty Images

It’s UEFA (15) and CONMEBOL (12) that dominate the share of referees for this summer’s event. One of Europe’s representatives is Polish official Szymon Marciniak, who took charge of the 2022 final between France and Argentina in Qatar. The referee for the Euro 2024 final between Spain and England, François Letexier, is also among the UEFA delegates.

Premier League referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor have made the cut as expected, while big names such as Clément Turpin, Felix Zwayer, Slavko Vinčić and Alejandro Hernández Hernández are involved as well.

From South America, 2025 Copa Libertadores final referee Darío Herrera of Argentina will be present, as will 2024 Copa América final official Raphael Claus of Brazil. Both CONMEBOL giants have three referees at the tournament—more than from any other nation.

There will be nine referees from CONCACAF in total. American duo Tori Penso and Ismail Elfath will proudly oversee matches at a historic home tournament, while back-to-back MLS Referee of the Year Drew Fischer of Canada has unsurprisingly been chosen, too. Mexico’s representatives are César Ramos and Katia García, with the former taking charge of the 2025 Liga MX final and the latter one of only two female referees alongside USA’s Penso.

There will be eight AFC officials and seven CAF referees, although Jean-Jacques Ndala—referee of the extremely controversial 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final—has been omitted. New Zealander Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh is the only OFC referee.

Confederation	No. of Referees	Referees
AFC	8	Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan); Ning Ma (China), Alireza Faghani (Australia), Yusuke Araki (Japan), Abdulrahman Al Jassim (Qatar), Khalid Al Turais (Saudi Arabia), Omar Al Ali (United Arab Emirates), Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)
CAF	7	Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria), Pierre Atcho (Gabon), Amin Mohamed (Egypt), Jalal Jayed (Morocco), Dahane Beida (Mauritania), Omar Abdulkadir Artan (Somalia), Abongile Tom (South Africa)
CONCACAF	9	Drew Fischer (Canada), Juan Calderón (Costa Rica), Hector Said Martínez (Honduras), Oshane Nation (Jamaica), César Ramos (Mexico), Katia García (Mexico), Iván Barton (El Salvador), Ismail Elfath (USA), Tori Penso (USA)
CONMEBOL	12	Yael Falcón Pérez (Argentina), Darío Herrera (Argentina), Facundo Tello (Argentina), Ramon Abatti (Brazil), Raphael Claus (Brazil), Wilton Sampaio (Brazil), Cristian Garay (Chile), Andrés Rojas (Colombia), Juan Gabriel Benítez (Paraguay), Kevin Ortega (Peru), Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay), Jesús Valenzuela (Venezuela)
OFC	1	Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh (New Zealand)
UEFA	15	Michael Oliver (England), Anthony Taylor (England), François Letexier (France), Clément Turpin (France), Felix Zwayer (Germany), Maurizio Mariani (Italy), Danny Makkelie (Netherlands), Espen Eskås (Norway), Szymon Marciniak (Poland), João Pinheiro (Portugal), István Kovács (Romania), Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia), Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Spain), Glenn Nyberg (Sweden), Sandro Schärer (Switzerland)

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When Does the 2026 World Cup Begin?

Soccer fans needn’t wait much longer for a World Cup fix, the opening match of the tournament staged on June 11 between Mexico and South Africa at the Estadio Akron in Zapopan, Mexico.

The final will take place at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19.

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