No Zim referees for World Cup finals

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
WHILE the United Kingdom endured the agony of watching the 2018 Fifa World Cup finals in Russia without any English referees for the first time in the history of the tournament, Zimbabwe, as usual, won’t have any referee at the 2022 showpiece in Qatar.

According to a list of referees released by Fifa, 81 match officials from six confederations will be in charge of matches at the next World Cup finals that are set to run from November 21 to December 18, featuring a record 32 teams, up from 24.

Africa will be represented by eight referees, with three, Ghead Grisha from Egypt, Bamlak Tessema from Ethiopia and Bakary Gassama from Gambia as Video Assistant Referees (VAR).

The other six referees that made it into the elite class are Ndala Ngambo from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Redouane Jiyed from Morocco, South African Victor Gomes, Maguette Ndiaye from Senegal and Sadok Selmi from Tunisia.

Uefa, will once again provide the highest number of match officials with 12 field referees and 14 VAR. 

Oceania Football Confederation has the least number of referees, with only two, while the host continent Asia has seven field and six VAR officials. 

A total of 10 field referees and eight VAR monitors have been selected from South America, while Concacaf and North America will have seven field referees and six VAR monitors.

Africa will be hoping that for the second time in the history of the World Cup tournament, an African referee will be selected to handle the final on November 21, 2022.

The first African referee to be in charge of a World Cup final was Moroccan Saidi Belqola, who was in charge of the 1998 final between France and Brazil in which the hosts trounced the Brazilians 3-0.

So far, the World Cup final has been handled by John Langenus (Belgium, 1930), Ivan Eklind (Sweden, 1934), Georges Capdeville (France, 1938), William Ling (England, 1954), Maurice Guigue (France, 1958), Nikolay Lalyshev (Russia, 1962), Gottfried Dienst (Switzerland, 1966) and Rudi Glockner (Germany, 1970).

Jack Talyor (England, 1974), Sergio Gonella (Italy, 1978), Arnaldo Coelho (Brazil, 1982), Romualdo Filho (Brazil, 1986), Edgardo Mendez (Mexico, 1990), Saidi Belqola (Morocco, 1986),Sandor Puhl ( Hungary, 1990)Said Belqqola, (Morocco, 1998), Pierluigi Collina (Italy, 2002), Horacio Elizondo (Argentina, 2006), Howard Webb (England, 2010) and Nicola Rizzoli (Italy, 2014) have also handled the World Cup final.

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