The CBF announced the creation of a program aimed at the professionalization of refereeing in Brazilian football. The initiative enters into force as early as 2026 and will be applied to the matches of the Brazilian Serie A Championship. There are 20 referees, 40 assistant referees and 12 video match officials who will enter an employment relationship with CBF for a period of one year. The 20 referees are Alex Stefano, Anderson Daronco, Braulio Machado, Bruno Arleu, David Lacerda, Edina Batista, Felipe Lima, Flavio Souza, Jonathan Pinheiro, Lucas Casagrande, Lucas Torezin, Matheus Candan, Paulo Zanovelli, Rafael Klein, Ramon Abatti, Raphael Claus, Rodrigo Pereira, Savio Sampaio, Wagner Magellan, Wilton Sampaio. The plan is that these 72 match officials will be responsible for the 380 matches of the main national competition Serie A, with the possibility of one-off performances in the Brazilian Cup and decisive clashes of Serie B. If any referees will decline the offer, the CBF has a list of alternates and the contracts will be made official in February, allowing the program to come into operation from 1 March 2026. The selection of the first 72 hired professional referees considered three criteria: (1) be a FIFA or CBF match official, (2) most matches referees in the A-League in 2024 and 2025, (3) average score in the CBF performance evaluation of seasons 2024 and 2025. Fixed salaries vary according to each referee's category. In addition to the monthly salary, the contractors will continue to receive game fees, a model already adopted today and will still be entitled to a bonus linked to their performance. The CBF does not intend to make public the specific values of each salary range (the monthly average among the 72 selected match officials is around R$ 13,000, while the referees concentrate the highest remunerations, with fixed values higher than R$ 30,000.
The professionalization project was developed from the analysis of models adopted in other European countries, such as Germany, England and Spain, as well as Mexico. To boost the growth of arbitration in the country, the CBF structured the program based on four main principles:
- Remuneration: implementation of fixed salary, variable payments per match and bonuses for performance, in addition to benefits such as study aid and other services linked to the referee function.
- Fitness and health: weekly training routine, supervised via smartwatches included in an exclusive kit provided by the CBF. They will also have support from nutritionists, psychologists and physical therapists, in addition to undergoing four annual evaluations, which can result in temporary removal during an evaluation cycle.
- Technical training: CBF will hold monthly meetings with theoretical classes, tests and practical activities. The focus will be on improving decision-making and general management of matches, with dynamics aimed at standardizing criteria. Each professional referee will receive feedback with performance analysis each round.
- Technology and innovation: CBF plans to introduce the semi-automatic offside technology later this season, although with no set date for the start of its use. Another novelty will be the adoption of the “RefCam”, attached to the referee to monitor the behavior of the players and curb excessive reactions from both sides.
In addition, CBF will use an internal performance ranking to value referees who stand out on the national stage and demote those with lower results. This ranking will not be released to the public and will be prepared from grades awarded by observers and the CBF Referees Committee.
