American referee has already refereed a match for Portugal in this World Cup and has a high average of red cards
This Wednesday afternoon (30), FIFA announced the refereeing team that will act in the game between Cameroon and Brazil, on Friday (30), at 4 pm (Brasília time). The Brazilian team must go to the field with an alternative lineup, to save the holders.
The American Ismail Elfath will be responsible for the whistle in the game of the third round of Group G. At the flags, Kyle Atkins and Corey Parker represent the United States, while Chinese Ma Ning will be the fourth official.
VAR will be in charge of Alejandro Hernandez, assisted by Juan Martinez. The offside VAR will be handled by Pau Cebrian and technical support will be handled by Ricardo de Burgos. All of them from Spain.
Thus, the United States, China and Spain will be the countries with arbitration representatives in the final game of the group stage.
Ismail Elfath is a well-known name in United States football. Referee in Major League Soccer (MLS) since 2012, Elfath joined the FIFA international refereeing board in 2016 and makes his first participation in a World Cup.
The referee is 40 years old and works in an information technology consultancy. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco, but acquired American citizenship, which is why he has a free pass in the two countries that compete in the current edition of the World Cup. For refereeing in the MLS, he was selected by the US federation.
The owner of the whistle has a tendency not to hold cards, including red ones. In 265 refereed matches in his career, Elfath has already applied 65 red cards, an average of 0.24 per game, which means that, on average, every less than five matches, he sends off a player on the field. He has a tendency to draw straight red cards, with 37 cards being straight reds and another 28 coming from two yellow cards.
In this World Cup, the American refereed the match between Portugal and Ghana, which ended 3-2 for the Portuguese and was considered by many to be one of the best games in the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar. In this duel, the judge applied six yellow cards, four for Ghana and two for Portugal.
Has Ismail Elfath refereed matches for Brazil?
USA TODAY Sports
The referee has already whistled a match for the Brazilian Olympic team. It was at the 2020 Olympics, which took place in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
The duel took place on July 25, 2021, between Brazil and Ghana, a match that ended 0-0, still in the group stage. In this duel, he applied two red cards: one for Douglas Luiz, from Brazil, in the 14th minute of the first half and one for Eboue Kouassi, already at the end of the match.
