American referee Ismail Elfath has been appointed to officiate Portugal’s debut match at the 2022 World Cup against Group H Ghana on Thursday, FIFA announced Tuesday.
Elfath, 40, is one of the 28 rookies at the world championships and will referee a match for the main Portuguese team for the first time, and the only connection to the Portuguese colors refers to a match for the under-20 team, at the 2019 World Cup in Poland.
At that time, the American was chosen to officiate the group stage match with Argentina, which Portugal lost 2-0. That formation had Diogo Costa, Diogo Dalot and Rafael Leão, who are now at the service of the ‘AA’ team in the 2022 World Cup.
An international since 2016, Elfath will be assisted on the pitch by her compatriots Kyle Atkins and Corey Parker, while French Stéphanie Frappart will act as fourth referee.
Armando Villarreal, also an American, will be the video referee.
Portugal and Ghana will play on Thursday, at 7:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. in Lisbon), at Estádio 974, in Doha, in a Group H match of the 2022 World Cup.
The “quinas” team will then face Uruguay, on November 28 (10:00 p.m. local time), and South Korea, led by Paulo Bento, on December 2 (6:00 p.m. local time).
The 22nd edition of the World Championship will run until December 18 in Qatar.
Source: TSF
