Italy’s Daniele Orsato will officiate the opening match of the World Cup in Qatar between the hosts and Ecuador on Sunday (17:00 CET). This was announced by the world association FIFA on Friday.
The 46-year-old has been a FIFA referee since 2010, in Qatar Orsato whistled for the first time as a senior referee at a World Cup – in 2018 in Russia he was there as a video assistant. The Italian also met German football fans on the big stage in 2020 when he led the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Paris St. Germain (1-0).
As expected, the German referee Daniel Siebert (Berlin) will not be called up in the opening game at his World Cup premiere. The 38-year-old took charge of three matches at last year’s European Championship, and the finals in Qatar are now his first World Cup.
Orsato will be joined by his two compatriots, Ciro Carbone and Alessandro Giallatini, as assistants in the opening game. Romania’s Istvan Kovacs is the fourth official, with Italy’s Massimiliano Irrati overseeing the game as VAR. There are 129 officials in total, including six women.