Australia will have a strong presence of match officials at this year’s FIFA World Cup™ in Qatar, after four representatives were named in FIFA’s list of match officials for the showpiece tournament to be held in November and December 2022.
Overnight FIFA announced a list of 36 referees, 69 assistant referees, and 24 video match officials (VMOs) for this year’s tournament, which included the names of Australians Chris Beath, Ashley Beecham, Anton Shchetinin, and Shaun Evans.
Beath will attend the tournament as a referee, Beecham and Shchetinin as assistant referees, and Evans as a VMO. For each match official, it will be their debut FIFA World Cup™.
Football Australia Chief Executive Officer, James Johnson, today acknowledged the four-match officials who will build on Australia’s proud record of having match officials selected for major international tournaments in Doha later this year.
“We are thrilled to learn that overnight the FIFA Referees Committee confirmed the appointment of Chris, Ashley, Anton and Shaun to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™,” Johnson said.
“Australia has a long history of producing world-class referees. The appointments of Chris, Ashley, Anton and Shaun speak to how highly they are regarded domestically and on the global stage.”
“During the last twelve-to-eighteen months, Chris, Ashley, Anton and Shaun have undertaken significant appointments, including the men’s Tokyo 2020 Gold Medal match and the FIFA Club World Cup™ Final. Their selections for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ will no doubt motivate our current match official panel along with inspiring a whole new generation of referees.”
Beath said: “I’m absolutely thrilled with the appointment to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. My team and I have been working tirelessly towards this goal over many, many years and we are all extremely proud to have been selected.”
In addition to Beath, Beecham, Shchetinin, and Evans, Iranian referee Alireza Faghani who is employed full-time by Football Australia and officiates in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men, has been selected for the competition. 2022 will mark Faghani’s third FIFA World Cup™ attendance.
FIFA Referees Committee Chairman, Pierluigi Collina, said match officials will play a key role in the on-field success of the tournament later this year.
“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide,” Collina said. “The 2018 World Cup was very successful, partly because of the high standard of refereeing, and we will do our best to be even better in a few months in Qatar.”
The full list of match officials for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ – which also includes six female match officials – can be accessed .
