2026 World Cup referees announced with 52 selected including six women

[p]Football's governing body will also take 88 assistant referees and 30 video match officials, who hail from all six confederations and 50 member associations.[/p][p][b]"The selected match officials are the very best in the world,"[/b] said Pierluigi Collina, FIFA's chief refereeing officer.[/p][p][b]"They were part of a wider pool of officials that was identified and monitored over the past three years. They have attended seminars and officiated at FIFA tournaments.[/b][/p][embed guid="223cb1f3-7a26-4cef-bec0-08059e1555d4" url="https://www.instagram.com/p/DWlbbRIEQ9X/?hl=en" social-type="instagram" /][p][b]"In addition, their performances in domestic and international matches were regularly assessed."[/b][/p][p]The World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico will be the biggest in history, with a 48-team line-up and 104 matches to be played.[/p][p]There are 41 more match officials than at Qatar four years ago, where 32 teams played 64 matches.[/p][p][b]"The fact that six women match officials have been selected continues a trend that was started four years ago in Qatar as we aim to further develop women's refereeing," [/b]Collina said with six women having already refereed in 2022.[/p]