FIFA held a referee media briefing of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Poland 2019 at Lodz Stadium on Saturday 15 June, looking back on the 51 matches played and ahead to the final later that evening. Massimo Busacca, FIFA's Director of Refereeing, analysed standout situations from Poland 2019 games and answered questions from journalists: "Our overarching philosophy is to respect the fair play of football. Protecting the players is the most important thing, and the players have to always respect their opponents. Especially in this competition – the younger players have so much energy and passion. We also emphasise respecting our officials. We have to play football respecting each other. We work in a professional way, just like the teams. We go out on the field and train. If you can put yourself in the right position, you are much more likely to make the correct decision. And of course we analyse situations, analyse video and try to reach uniformity. Fouls, handballs, offside – we want everyone to have the same concepts and considerations to take the appropriate decision."
Average referee age: 36
Checked Video Assistant Referee (VAR) incidents in 51 matches: 537
Changed decisions after VAR: 22
Decision accuracy with VAR: 99.8% (95.9% before VAR intervention)
Actual time played per match: 56 minutes, 24 seconds (up 03:22 from 2017)
Total yellow cards: 166 (down 24 from 2017)
Average fouls per match: 28.4
Source: FIFA
