When soccer's biggest tournament kicks off in November, there will be a few familiar faces in the middle of the action.
Texas-based referees Ismail Elfath and Armando Villareal are among the five Americans appointed as match officials for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the worldwide governing body of the sport announced on Thursday.
Elfath will serve as a referee, while Villareal will make his debut as a Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Joining them in Qatar are fellow Americans Kyle Atkins, Kathryn Nesbitt and Corey Parker, who will be assistant referees. Nesbitt is making history as one of six women appointed to the men's World Cup crew for the first ever.
Kathryn Nesbitt today became one of six female officials to make history, being appointed to the #WorldCup. For the first time. Ever.
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) May 19, 2022
Quite a journey for a "kid who started as a summer job" who up to two weeks before the 2019 @FIFAWWC, was a professor of chemistry.
Her story.
Canada's Drew Fisher, also part of PRO Referees, will also be a video match official.
🏆 // Congratulations to Kyle Atkins (AR), Ismail Elfath (REF), Drew Fischer (VMO), Kathryn Nesbitt (AR), Corey Parker (AR) and Armando Villarreal (VMO) who will be heading to Qatar later this year >> https://t.co/fNb7qXLXkQ.#PRO | #WorldCup https://t.co/fz2Cp0dBPe
— PRO (@PROreferees) May 19, 2022
San Antonio resident Villarreal has refereed more than 150 regular-season MLS games and was assigned as the referee of the 2021 MLS Cup Final.
A native of Casablanca, Morocco, Elfath moved to Austin in 2001 to attend college at the University of Texas and started his professional referee over a decade ago in the NASL. He was named the 2020 MLS Referee of the Year.
That same year, Nesbitt — a former analytical chemist — became the first woman recognized as MLS Assistant Referee of the Year.