Diego Pombo Lopez is a new Brazilian FIFA Video Match Official (VMO). The nominations for the 2024 FIFA List were sent by Brazilian FA on 27 September 2023, when Pombo had a total of zero (0) appearances as VAR in the Brazilian first division. Diego Pombo won his spot on the list by replacing Rafael Traci, change approved by CONMEBOL. According to the Brazilian refereeing website De Olho No Apito, it is unclear whether Diego Pombo, whose father-in-law is a great friend of the CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues, was able to skip the required minimum 15 matches as VAR at the highest national level by being directly certified by CONMEBOL.
The official Regulations on the Nomination and Appointment of FIFA International Match Officials published by FIFA include the following requirement: “The proposed video match officials (VMOs) shall have officiated regularly at matches at the highest level in the member association of their country for at least two years and have officiated at least 15 matches as a VMO. They can also be directly certified by FIFA or the confederations. There is no fitness requirement for this role.”
Source: De Olho No Apito
