FIFA announces referees’ list of 2018 World Cup

CAIRO – 29 March 2018: The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced on Thursday the list of the referees for the 2018 World Cup.

FIFA enlisted 36 referees, including the Egyptian Gehad Gerisha, and 63 assistant referees.

Gerisha thanked all the officials who helped him reach that point in his career, including Essam Seyam and Gamal El Ghandour, former Egyptian presidents of the Referees Committee, along with Ahmed El-Shenawy, Nasser Abbas, Azab Hagag, Ahmed Badawy and Hossam Taha, members of the committee.



Gehad Gerisha – FIFA International Referee - Courtesy of Superkora website


The 41-year-old became a FIFA referee in 2008. He ruled matches in the 2013, 2015 and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, as well as the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

“Over the last three years, preparatory seminars have taken place for referees and assistant referees focusing on fair play, protecting players and the image of the game, as well as consistency and uniformity,” FIFA stated through its official website.

“The selected FIFA World Cup match officials will attend another dedicated seminar for two weeks in the second half of April at the technical centre of the Italian Football Association in Coverciano, Italy. The officials will be divided into two groups, which will also include video assistant referee (VAR) candidates,” FIFA concluded.

FIFA has officially announced that the 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia next June will witness the use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.