New milestone for African Refereeing at the FIFA Futsal World Cup final

African refereeing had a new milestone achieved on Sunday (3 October 2021), with Egyptian referee Mohamed Hassan Ahmed Youssef officiating the FIFA Futsal World Cup, Lithuania 2021™ Final between Portugal and Argentina.

Youssef was the Second Referee when Portugal defeated Argentina 2-1 at the Kaunas Arena to be crowned FIFA Futsal World Cup Champions for the first time in their history.

It was the first time an African referee takes place in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Final match.

Prior to that, there was another appearance for an African match official at the same arena, when Moroccan Khalid Hnich was the Reserve Assistant Referee for the Third-Place match, which saw Brazil defeating Kazakhstan 4-2.

This milestone is the latest achievement for African refereeing on the global scene. Last August, six (6) African referees and two (2) Video assistant referees took place in the Men’s tournament of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with Ethiopia’s Bamlak Tessema officiating the bronze medal match between Mexico and Japan, while five (5) female African referees also participated in the Women’s tournament during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.