Although FIFA decided to remove the age limits for international match officials, only 2 referees - Bjorn Kuipers (NED, 1973), Vladislav Bezborodov (RUS, 1973) - and 5 assistant referees - Konrad Sapela (POL, 1971), Cyril Gringore (FRA, 1972), Octavian Sovre (ROU, 1973), Tarik Ongun (TUR, 1973), Rui Tavares (POR, 1974) - older than 46 were accepted for 2021. There are 8 referees - Patricio Loustau (ARG, 1975), Nestor Pitana (ARG, 1975), Mauro Vigliano (ARG, 1975), David Gantar (CAN, 1975), Felix Brych (GER, 1975), Daniele Orsato (ITA, 1975), Veaceslav Banari (MDA, 1975), Victor Carrillo (PER, 1975) - and 4 assistant referees - Matthew Cream (AUS, 1975), Thorsten Schiffner (GER, 1975), Juan Yuste Jimenez (ESP, 1975), Bahattin Duran (TUR, 1975) - who will be turning 46 this year. However, there are some older video match officials: Carlos Ayala (MEX, 1967), Juan Rangel (MEX, 1971), Dalibor Djurdjevic (SRB, 1973), Milovan Ristic (SRB, 1974), Allen Chapman (USA, 1974), Kevin Blom (NED, 1974), in addition to those who already turned 45 last year: Kim Woo Sung (KOR, 1975), Paulus Van Boekel (NED, 1975). While Mexican VMO Carlos Ayala (54) is the oldest, Polish AR Konrad Sapela (50, photo), is the longest serving match official on the FIFA List (since 1998).
Referees (M): Enea Jorgji (ALB, 2002), Yu Ming Hsun (TPE, 2002). Ivan Bebek (CRO, 2002), Vasilios Dimitriou (CYP, 2002), Ali Al-Qaysi (IRQ, 2002), Veaceslav Banari (MDA, 2002), Damir Skomina (SVN, 2002), Charymurat Kurbanov (TKM, 2002), Eduardo Gamboa (CHI, 2003), Zhang Lei (CHN, 2004), Ng Chiu Kok (HKG, 2004), Hettikamkanamge Perera (SRI, 2004), Aleksei Kulbakov (BLR, 2005), Ahmed Toure (GUI, 2005), Svein Moen (NOR, 2005), Victor Carrillo (PER, 2005), Juan Soto (VEN, 2005).
Referees (F): Salome Di Iorio (ARG, 2004), Katalin Kulcsar (HUN, 2004), Sandra Braz (POR, 2004), Kateryna Monzul (UKR, 2004), Estela Alvarez (ARG, 2005), Sirley Cornejo (BOL, 2005), Lidya Abebe (ETH, 2005), Vivian Peeters (NED, 2005), Tanja Subotic (SVN, 2005), Esther Staubli (SUI, 2005), Cong Thi Dung (VIE, 2005).
Assistant Referees (M): Konrad Sapela (POL, 1998), Matthew Cream (AUS, 2000), Alessandro Rocha (BRA, 2001), David Bitton (ISR, 2001), Ridiger Cokaj (ALB, 2002), Ricardo Ake (BLZ, 2002), Berke Tesfagiorghis (ERI, 2002), Alan Camilleri (MLT, 2002), Andrei Bodean (MDA, 2002), Bahattin Duran (TUR, 2002), Emre Eyisoy (TUR, 2002), Pham Manh Long (VIE, 2002), Marios Dimitriadis (CYP, 2003), John Pareanga (COK, 2004), Radoslav Siejka (POL, 2004), Juan Yuste Jimenez (ESP, 2004), Hsu Min-Yu (TPE, 2005), Douglas Bermudez (SLV, 2005), Octavian Sovre (ROU, 2005), Edgar De Barros (STP, 2005), Tomas Somolani (SVK, 2005).
Assistant Referees (F): Iordanka Korcheva (BUL, 2001), Ekaterina Petkova (BUL, 2002), Kossiwa Kpadenou (TOG, 2002), Sarah Ho (AUS, 2004), Cindy Muller (AUT, 2004), Judit Kulcsar (HUN, 2004), Kim Kyoung Min (KOR, 2004), Lidwine Rakotozafinoro (MAD, 2004), Mayte Chavez (MEX, 2004), Sonia Louis (BEN, 2005), Mona Mahmoud (EGY, 2005), Lee Seul Gi (KOR, 2005), Petruta Iugulescu (ROU, 2005), Maria Sukenikova (SVK, 2005).
Futsal Referees (M): Francisco Rivera (MEX, 2005), Borislav Kolev (BUL, 2006), Jan Kresta (CZE, 2006), Nurdin Bukuev (KGZ, 2006), Josip Barton (MKD, 2006), Ray Ritaga (PHI, 2006), Gean Telles (BRA, 2007), Gabor Kovacs (HUN, 2007), Mohamad Chami (LIB, 2007), Ivan Shabanov (RUS, 2007), Trayan Enchev (BUL, 2008), Marc Birkett (ENG, 2008), Vahid Arzpeyma (IRN, 2008), Eduardo Coelho (POR, 2008).
Futsal Referees (F): Katiucia Meneguzzi (BRA, 2007), Giselle Torri (BRA, 2007), Teresa Da Rosa (URU, 2010), Irina Velikanova (RUS, 2012), Raquel Gonzalez (ESP, 2012), Bettina Cingari (ARG, 2014), Maria Pinto (ARG, 2014), Gelareh Nazemi (IRN, 2014), Liang Qingyun (CHN, 2015), Kumi Hiruma (JPN, 2015), Kumiko Matsuo (JPN, 2015), Liz Arrelano (PER, 2015), Rosa Carvalho (VEN, 2015), Nohely Mendez (VEN, 2015).
Beach Soccer: Libor Kastanek (CZE, 2008), Eduards Borisevics (LVA, 2008), Jelili Ogunmuyiwa (NGA, 2008), Abdulaziz Abdullah (KUW, 2009), Turki Al Salehi (OMA, 2009), Mikhail Prokharav (UKR, 2009), Gerges Yarak (LBN, 2010), Yahya Abdel (LYB, 2010), Said Hachim (MAD, 2010), Suhaimi Mat (MAS, 2010), Ibrahim Wan (MAS, 2010), Oleg Cebotari (MDA, 2010), Tomasz Winiarczyk (POL, 2010), Hugo Pado (SOL, 2010).
Distribution of FIFA match officials per confederation in 2021: UEFA – 1342 (411 referees, 610 assistant referees, 100 video match officials, 150 futsal referees, 71 beach soccer referees), CAF – 879 (345 referees, 432 assistant referees, 20 video match officials, 47 futsal referees, 35 beach soccer referees), AFC – 773 (260 referees, 353 assistant referees, 41 video match officials, 91 futsal referees, 28 beach soccer referees), CONMEBOL – 393 (125 referees, 137 assistant referees, 34 video match officials, 63 futsal referees, 34 beach soccer referees), CONCACAF – 284 (89 referees, 135 assistant referees, 13 video match officials, 31 futsal referees, 16 beach soccer referees), OFC – 41 (11 referees, 22 assistant referees, 0 video match officials, 6 futsal referees, 2 beach soccer referees).
Member associations with most FIFA match officials in 2021: Brazil – 51 (16 referees, 16 assistant referees, 7 video match officials, 8 futsal referees, 4 beach soccer referees), Spain – 51 (15 referees, 17 assistant referees, 9 video match officials, 6 futsal referees, 4 beach soccer referees), Germany – 49 (14 referees, 16 assistant referees, 12 video match officials, 4 futsal referees, 3 beach soccer referees), Italy – 49 (14 referees, 15 assistant referees, 10 video match officials, 5 futsal referees, 5 beach soccer referees), France – 45 (14 referees, 16 assistant referees, 9 video match officials, 4 futsal referees, 2 beach soccer referees), Argentina – 44 (15 referees, 15 assistant referees, 3 video match officials, 7 futsal referees, 4 beach soccer referees), Russia – 44 (14 referees, 16 assistant referees, 4 video match officials, 6 futsal referees, 4 beach soccer referees).
Member associations without any FIFA match officials in 2021: American Samoa, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, Guam, Liechtenstein, Montserrat, St. Lucia, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands.
