FIFA World Cup Football Referee Salary: One of the most expensive tournaments that are organised with respect to Sports is the FIFA World Cup. This year, the World Cup is being held in Qatar and the league has also increased the award money as compared to the previous year by a whopping amount of 44 million dollars. This simply is evident to explain how Qatar is actually hosting the most expensive tournament in the game of football. World Cup is an event that is held once every four years. It gives immense opportunities to the soccer-loving teams representing various countries to channel their love and proficiency in the game.
While the players, their activities, and earnings are highlighted throughout, there are many people who ensure that each game is possibly played in discipline and every event is well executed. These include the referees. They, along with the players work with extreme diligence on the field and are well-paid for their services. In the following article, check for all the details pertaining to the FIFA World Cup Football Referee Salary and their earnings throughout the tournament.
Fifa World Cup Football Referee Salary
The FIFA World Cup is undoubtedly the most expensive football tournament of all time. The games are played under the constant guidance and in accordance with the match referees. Like the players, the referees are also quite prominent in every match as they ensure the declaration of points and strive to keep the games in the utmost discipline. Being a highly invested event, it would be rather shrewd to assume that the referees might not be getting paid well for all that they are doing for the game. On the contrary, the truth is that their jobs are very lucrative.
The pay that the referees and associates depend on the roles they step in. Football was earlier played in presence of Feild and Assistant Referees. In recent years, there has been a very prominent change where Video Assistant Referees VAR has also come into the picture making the decision-making fairer, transparent, and extremely better.
Additionally, FIFA made a massive move this year when they included women match referees to officiate the matches. It is for the first time in the World Cup that women are included as referees. The organisation kept a close check on the performance of the women referees in the league matches of different associations across the world. Picking out the best, as per requirement, FIFA announced the inclusion of 3 female field match referees and 3 female assistant referees. It is clearly a great initiative on the part of the International Federation of Association Football FIFA as they gear up by including female referees at equalised pay scale as that of men.
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The Salary Structure of Match Referees in FIFA WC 2024
A total of 36 Field Referees, 69 Assistant Referees and 24 Video Assistant Referees VAR will be seen in the FIFA World Cup. They will be officiating a total of 64 matches in all the stages. The salary for each match has been fixed by FIFA on the basis of the round or the part of the tournament the matches are a part of. This implies that the salary is different for league matches, and further knock-off matches. Moreover, the amounts have changed significantly as compared to the last world cup tournament held in 2018.
In the last edition of FIFA that was hosted in Russia, the central referees were paid an amount of 70,000 euros while the assistants were paid $ 25,000. FIFA has revived the basic pay as they implied in the year 2018. However, in Qatar, the scenarios have changed and the following amounts have been fixed:
| S.No. | On Field Referee Type | Match Fee for Group Stages | Match Fee for Knock-Off Matches | Match Fee for Final Match | Total Tournament Payout |
| 1. | Central Referees | $ 3,000 | $ 10,000 | $ 10,000 | $ 300,000 |
| 2. | Assistant Referees | $ 2,500 | $ 5,000 | $ 5,000 | $ 150,000 |
| 3. | 4th Officials | $ 2,500 | $ 5,000 | $ 5,000 | $ 150,000 |
| 4. | Video Assistant Referees VAR | $3,000 | $ 5,000 | $ 5,000 | $175,000 |
The match fee for each match is nearly thrice what a referee earns in a match organised by the associations portraying the excessive-high standards and exemplary quality of work FIFA aims to install in the World Cup. Let us know your thoughts regarding the FIFA World Cup Football Referee Salary in the comment box below!
