American official Ismail Elfath will referee England’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina. The 44-year-old has twice overseen matches in which Lionel Messi lifted trophies.
At this tournament, Elfath handled the group games Japan vs Netherlands and Uruguay vs Spain, plus Norway’s last-16 win over five-time champions Brazil. He has shown six yellow cards and sent off Uruguay’s Agustín Canobbio for a high challenge on Spain’s Pau Cubarsí; Canobbio then confronted Elfath and grabbed his shirt.
The semi-final takes place in Atlanta on Wednesday at 20:00 BST and will be shown live on BBC One. Fellow Americans Corey Parker and Kyle Atkins will serve as assistant referees, with Italy’s Maurizio Mariani as fourth official.
Elfath was the fourth official for Argentina’s 2022 World Cup final win over France and refereed Inter Miami’s 2023 Leagues Cup final victory over Nashville SC, Messi’s first trophy with the club. He has worked in Major League Soccer since 2012 and is a two-time MLS Referee of the Year. Born in Morocco, he moved to the United States at 18 after winning a U.S. diversity visa lottery.
Meanwhile, England’s Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor are not eligible to referee the World Cup final due to FIFA conflict-of-interest rules. Officials cannot oversee matches involving their own nation, and English and Argentine referees are also barred from games between those two countries because of political sensitivities, including the 1982 Falklands conflict. Argentina’s Facundo Tello is similarly ineligible. All three are also ruled out of the third-place play-off, which will feature one of those teams. The same regulations prevented Taylor from refereeing the 2022 final between Argentina and France.