FIFA Referees Committee President Pierluigi Collina has confirmed that the 2026 World Cup referees perform their field duties with complete independence and integrity, stressing that allegations that question their integrity or allege external influences on their decisions have no place in the world of football.
Colina's decisive statements came in an official interview published by the FIFA website after the conclusion of the round of 16 competitions of the tournament, where he expressed the general satisfaction of the committee with the remaining refereeing performance of eight major matches of the World Cup, pointing out that the current tournament witnessed an increase in the number of matches played by 50% compared to the Qatar 2022 edition, which makes the occurrence of some estimation errors a natural thing that is being avoided immediately.
Refuting the cases of the match between Egypt and Argentina
In an extraordinary move to clarify the decisions that caused widespread public and media confusion, Collina refuted the Video Technology Protocol (VAR), citing detailed refereeing cases from the Egypt-Argentina match.
He explained that the video referee is obliged to review the stage of offensive possession leading to the scoring of any goal, and that in the event of the discovery of a violation affecting the construction of the attack, the referee is immediately recommended to review it on the screen, stressing that there is no specific time limit or distance that restricts the return of the previous violation of the goal.
Colina applied this principle to the shot of canceling a goal for the Egyptian national team, revealing that the player Marwan Attia (No. 19) clearly ran over the foot of Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez (No. 6) in the building phase of the attack, which necessitated the intervention of the technique and the cancellation of the goal, as the violation remains a violation regardless of its clarity to the naked eye inside the stadium.
Natural Friction
On the other hand, the head of the referees committee defended the decision not to count a foul against the Argentine team in the last breath of the same match, indicating that the shot that brought together the Egyptian star Mohamed Salah and the Argentine striker Julian Alvarez was carefully reviewed by the referee and the video assistant.
He pointed out that the decision was based on the fact that the friction that took place between the two stars was a natural competitive friction within the framework of football and did not require the whistle to be sounded, detailing the technical rule that the defender's touching the ball first is necessarily followed by natural friction resulting from the course of play and is not classified as a violation that requires punishment.
Protection of referees
The international official concluded his speech by sending a strict protection message to the refereeing system, warning that random accusations made by some parties without the basis of the rules of the game contribute to charging the atmosphere and generating unacceptable threats to referees and their family members.
Collina stressed that FIFA refereeing is completely immune to any pressure, including FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who gives the committee and the referees absolute confidence to act impartially and honestly, considering that the discretionary aspect will remain part of the game's fun and attractiveness as long as the application takes into account globally accepted principles.
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