In the early morning of July 10 (Vietnam time), the French team will face Morocco in the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup. Before the match, FIFA's appointment of referee Facundo Tello and all assistants to be Argentinian nationals attracted the attention of the media.
Speaking at a pre-match press conference, coach Didier Deschamps said he was not concerned about the debate surrounding refereeing work.
I respect FIFA's decision and have no right to interfere. What I want is for the Argentine referee team to complete their tasks as well as French referee Francois Letexier did in a recent match. Our opponent is Morocco, not the referee," the French strategist shared.
According to FIFA's decision, in addition to referee Facundo Tello, assistants Juan Pablo Belatti, Gabriel Chade, fourth referee Dario Herrera and VAR referee Christian Navarro are all Argentinians. This is also the first time at the 2026 World Cup that the entire refereeing team of a match has the same nationality.
Facundo Tello is an experienced referee who has officiated many matches at the 2022 World Cup. At the 2026 World Cup, he officiated two group stage matches and continued to be assigned by FIFA in the quarter-finals.
On the Moroccan side, coach Mohamed Ouahbi also appeared calm about FIFA's decision.
Tello is an experienced referee and we completely trust FIFA's choice. Previously, we also played in a match officiated by a referee of the same nationality as the opponent and everything went normally," Mr. Ouahbi said.
The confrontation at Foxborough stadium was also a reunion between the two teams after the 2022 World Cup semi-finals. At that time, the French team won 2-0 to advance to the final, and Morocco became the first African team to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup.
Assessing the opponent, Deschamps said that Morocco still maintains strength despite the changes on the coaching bench.
They changed coaches but are still a very quality team. Many players from both teams are playing together at the club level, so they understand each other very well. We know this will be a difficult match because Morocco has a different playing style and the deeper into the tournament, the greater the challenge," he assessed.
Regarding the force, Deschamps confirmed that midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni has returned to training after injury, but the possibility of starting will still be considered by the coaching staff. Meanwhile, Michael Olise still has to carry a yellow card after FIFA did not change the referee's decision in the match against Paraguay.
