FIFA chose the North American Ismail Elfath to be the referee of the confrontation between Brazil and Cameroon, for the last round of Group G of the World Cup. First, the Brazilian team needs a draw to confirm the leadership of the group. Cameroon needs to win and hope for a tie between Switzerland and Serbia, in addition to taking away the goal difference, to stay in second place.
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And Elfath will be joined in the confrontation by two Americans, Kyle Atkins and Corey Parker, as assistants, in addition to the Chinese Ma Ning, as the fourth referee of the match. At VAR, the Spaniards Alejandro Hernandez, Juan Martines, Pau Cebrián and Ricardo Burgos. The penultimate person responsible for impediments to the video referee or the last VAR assistant.
Ismail Elfath goes to his second game in this World Cup. In the debut of Group H he was responsible for refereeing the confrontation between Portugal and Ghana. In 2019, the North American whistled the match of Flamengo, against Al Hilal, for the FIFA Club World Cup, also played in Qatar.
Ismail Elfath is a naturalized American, as he was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He made it to the World Cup after performing well in Major League Soccer. The referee moved to the United States when he was 18 years old, having lived a good part of his life in his home country. He made his MLS debut in 2012 and joined FIFA in 2016.
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At age 40, he has already been appointed to referee the 2019 Gold Cup games, in addition to the aforementioned Club World Cup and the U-20 World Cup, from the same FIFA, in 2019. In the Olympics, Elfath played in three matches. In 2021, in Cameroon, he was also one of Concacaf’s guest judges to enter the African Cup of Nations, won by Senegal.
