With the 2026 World Cup now just a week away, excitement is building for the biggest ever edition of the global showpiece.
A record 48 teams are converging on the United States, Canada and Mexico this summer for a World Cup like no other before.
But, with more matches than ever due to the added 16 teams, there are also more officials called up than before, with as many as 170 referees, assistant referees and video assistant referees taking charge of the 104 matches.
So, who are they?
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Who are the 2026 World Cup referees?
In total, there are 52 referees for the 2026 World Cup, which is enough for each referee to take on two matches.
Due to the sheer number of matches, there are an extra 16 referees from 2022.
In total, 15 of the referees stem from UEFA countries, including Poland's Szymon Marciniak, who refereed the 2022 World Cup final, and England's Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver -- familiar to Premier League fans.
CONMEBOL provides 12 referees, while CONCACAF has nine, including four from the host countries.
There are eight referees from the AFC and seven from CAF, while New Zealand's Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh is the solitary referee selected from Oceania.
The referees are listed by confederation below.
AFC
Omar Al Ali (UAE)
Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar)
Khalid Al-Turais (Saudi Arabia)
Alireza Faghani (Australia)
Ma Ning (China)
Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)
Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)
Yusuke Araki (Japan)
CAF
Omar Abdulkadir Artan (Somalia)
Pierre Atcho (Gabon)
Dahane Beida (Mauritania)
Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)
Jalal Jayed (Morocco)
Amin Mohamed Omar (Egypt)
Abongile Tom (South Africa)
CONCACAF
Iván Barton (El Salvador)
Juan Gabriel Calderón (Costa Rica)
Ismail Elfath (United States)
Oshane Nation (Jamaica)
Drew Fischer (Canada)
Katia Itzel García (Mexico)
Saíd Martínez (Honduras)
Tori Penso (United States)
César Arturo Ramos (Mexico)
CONMEBOL
Ramon Abatti (Brazil)
Juan Gabriel Benítez (Paraguay)
Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Yael Falcón (Argentina)
Cristián Garay (Chile)
Darío Herrera (Argentina)
Kevin Ortega (Peru)
Andrés Rojas (Colombia)
Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)
Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)
Facundo Tello (Argentina)
Jesús Valenzuela (Venezuela)
OFC
Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh (New Zealand)
UEFA
Espen Eskås (Norway)
Alejandro Hernández Hernández (Spain)
István Kovács (Romania)
François Letexier (France)
Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)
Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Maurizio Mariani (Italy)
Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)
Michael Oliver (England)
João Pinheiro (Portugal)
Sandro Schärer (Switzerland)
Anthony Taylor (England)
Clément Turpin (France)
Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia)
Felix Zwayer (Germany)
And what about assistant referees?
Similarly to referees, there are 19 more assistant referees called up to the 2026 World Cup than four years ago, with 88 selected for this tournament compared to 69 in Qatar.
They too hail from all six confederations and are listed below.
AFC
Mohamed Al-Hammadi (UAE)
Taleb Al-Marri (Qatar)
Saud Al-Maqaleh (Qatar)
Mohammed Al-Bakry (Saudi Arabia)
George Lakrindis (Australia)
James Lindsay (Australia)
Zhou Fei (China)
Mohammad Al-Kalaf (Jordan)
Ahmad Al-Roalle (Jordan)
Timur Gaynullin (Uzbekistan)
Andrey Tsapenko (Uzbekistan)
Jun Mihara (Japan)
CAF
Elvis Noupue (Cameroon)
Boris Ditsoga (Gabon)
Amos Abeigne Ndong (Gabon)
Jerson Emiliano dos Santos (Angola)
Mokrane Gourari (Algeria)
Abbes Akram Zerhouni (Algeria)
Zakaria Brinsi (Morocco)
Mostafa Akarkad (Morocco)
Mahmoud Abouregal (Egypt)
Ahmed Hossam Taha (Egypt)
Zakhele Siwela (South Africa)
CONCACAF
David Moran (El Salvador)
Henry Pupiro (Nicaragua)
Juan Carlos Mora (Costa Rica)
Corey Parker (United States)
Kyle Atkins (United States)
Caleb Wales (Trinidad and Tobago)
Lyes Arfa (Canada)
Micheal Barwegen (Canada)
Sandra Ramirez (Mexico)
Walter Lopez (Honduras)
Christian Ramirez (Honduras)
Kathryn Nesbitt (United States)
Brooke Mayo (United States)
Alberto Morin (Mexico)
Marco Bisguerra (Mexico)
CONMEBOL
Rafael Alves (Brazil)
Danilo Manis (Brazil)
Eduardo Cardozo (Paraguay)
Milciades Salvidar (Paraguay)
Rodrigo Figueiredo (Brazil)
Facundo Rodrguez (Argentina)
Maxmiliano Del Yesso (Argentina)
Jose Retamal (Chile)
Miguel Rocha (Chile)
Cristian Navarro (Argentina)
Michael Orue (Peru)
Alexander Guzman (Colombia)
Bruno Boschilia (Brazil)
Bruno Pires (Brazil)
Nicolas Taran (Uruguay)
Carlos Barreiro (Uruguay)
Juan Pablo Belatti (Argentina)
Gabriel Chade (Argentina)
Jorge Urrego (Venezuela)
Tulio Moreno (Venezuela)
OFC
Isaac Trevis (New Zealand)
UEFA
Jan Erik Engan (Norway)
Isaak Bashevkin (Norway)
Jose Enrique Naranjo Perez (Spain)
Diego Sanchez Rojo (Spain)
Mihai Marius Marica (Romania)
Ferencz Tunyogi (Romania)
Cyril Mugnier (France)
Mehdi Rahmouni (France)
Hessel Steegstra (Netherlands)
Jan de Vries (Netherlands)
Tomasz Listkiewicz (Poland)
Adam Kupsik (Poland)
Daniele Bindoni (Italy)
Alberto Tegoni (Italy)
Mahbod Beigi (Sweden)
Andreas Soderkvist (Swededn)
Stuart Burt (England)
James Mainwating (England)
Bruno Jesus (Portugal)
Luciano Maia (Portugal)
Stephane De Almeida (Switzerland)
Gary Beswick (England)
Adam Nunn (England)
Nicolas Danos (France)
Benjamin Pages (France)
Tomasz Klancnik (Slovenia)
Andraz Kovacic (Slovenia)
Robert Kempter (Germany)
Christian Dietz (Germany)
And of course, who are the Video Assistant Referees?
There have been 30 VARs selected for the 2026 World Cup, compared to 24 four years ago.
Oceania are not represented here, but the other five confederations are.
AFC
Khamis Al-Marri (Qatar)
Abudallah Al-Shehri (Saudi Arabia)
Shaun Evans (Australia)
Fu Ming (China)
CAF
Mahmoud Ashour (Egypt)
Hamza El Fariq (Morocco)
CONCACAF
Joe Dickerson (United States)
Armando Villarreal (United States)
Erick Miranda (Mexico)
Tatiana Guzman (Nicaragua)
CONMEBOL
Juan Lara (Chile)
Hernan Mastrangelo (Argentina)
Antonio Garcia (Uruguay)
Leodan Gonzalez (Uruguay)
Juan Soto (Venezuela)
Nicolas Gallo (Colombia)
Rodolpho Toski (Brazil)
UEFA
Jerome Brisard (France)
Willy Delajod (France)
Bastian Dankert (Germany)
Carlos del Cerro Grande (Spain)
Marco Di Bello (Italy)
Ivan Bebek (Croatia)
Jarred Gillett (England)
Dennis Higler (Netherlands)
Tomasz Kwiatkowski (Poland)
Bram Van Driessche (Belgium)
Fedayi San (Switzerland)
When do we find out who is refereeing which game?
Due to FIFA's rulings to try and prevent any sort of foul play with officials, they are only confirmed 24/48 hours before each match, so we still will have to wait a few days yet to find out who will be on the whistle for the tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa.