Ismail Elfath of US picked among 36 World Cup referees

By The Associated Press

Ismail Elfath is the lone American among 36 referees selected by FIFA for this year’s World Cup. The 40-year-old was born in Morocco, moved to the U.S. when he was 18 and refereed his first Major League Soccer match in 2012. Elfath worked a semifinal of the 2019 Club World Cup, three games at last year’s Olympics and at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations. In August 2016, he was the referee for the first on-field test of the Video Assistant Referee during a game between New York Red Bulls II and Orlando City B in the USL League Championship.