Football
ESPN staff 6y

World Cup referees feature two from U.S., none from England

The United States is the only country to have two referees selected to officiate games at this summer's World Cup, but no English official has been named.

On Thursday, FIFA confirmed the 36 referees and 63 assistants who will work the 64 games in Russia. The same referees, representing 46 countries, had been provisionally selected in November.

MLS referees Mark Geiger -- who also worked at the 2014 World Cup -- and Jair Marrufo were selected from the U.S., whose team did not qualify for this summer's tournament in Russia. The U.S. also had two assistant referees selected, Frank Anderson and Corey Rockwell.

Four of the eight countries whose domestic leagues use FIFA-approved video assistant referee (VAR) protocol will not have match officials working at the World Cup.

FIFA has said World Cup officials will be fully trained to use VAR, despite criticism of often slow and confusing decision-making since trials began in 2016. This month, VAR was voted into the laws of the game and approved by FIFA for the tournament.

However, Australia, Belgium, Portugal and South Korea will not have referees at the World Cup despite their leagues adopting VAR live trials. The other four countries whose leagues use VAR and who did have referees selected are Germany, Italy, Poland and the U.S.

Brazil, France and Netherlands are among countries using VAR in domestic cup games that had officials selected by FIFA, but no English officials were picked despite VAR being used in the FA Cup.

With Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland also left out, it will be the first time since 1938 that no British official has been at a World Cup.

England's Mark Clattenburg had been on a long list of referees published in 2016, but forfeited his place when he left the Premier League for a position in Saudi Arabia last year.

Selection was based on "each referee's skills and personality, as well as his level of understanding of football and ability to read both the game and the various tactics employed by teams," a FIFA statement said.

It added that a "candidate's VAR experience in domestic leagues" would be a factor in choosing specialist video assistants. That selection will be made after all attend a two-week seminar in Italy next month.

Sergey Karasev is the first Russian official to be selected for a World Cup since 2006, while Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan will work at his third World Cup and should extend his all-time competition record of handling nine games.

Information from The Associated Press and Press Association was used in this report.

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