The World Cup ended, and the refereeing, the new LOTG, and the new VAR protocol have been discussed as much as the matches themselves.
Looking at the games overall, we saw officiating performances ranging from excellent to mediocre. There was also one very poorly officiated match: France–Paraguay.
The matches were officiated in the manner FIFA wanted: few VAR interventions, few fouls, few yellow cards, and a high percentage of effective playing time. Instead of relying on yellow cards, the referees managed the matches through their personalities and body language. Except for two matches — France–Paraguay and Argentina–Spain — there were no problems with match control.
As for the referee appointments, except in two matches, when the teams were from different confederations, the matches were officiated by referees from confederations to which neither team belonged. Both exceptions involved UEFA referees: the Portuguese referee João Pinheiro in the Argentina–Switzerland quarterfinal and the Slovenian referee Slavko Vinčić in the Argentina-Spain final.
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