Ten referees from Africa are among officials being considered to officiate at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to a report by Africasoccer.com.

The tournament will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and will feature an expanded format of 48 teams. Africa will have nine automatic qualification slots at the global competition.

The reported preliminary list released by FIFA includes ten African referees who could officiate matches at the tournament. In addition, Moroccan official Hamza El Farouk is being considered for a role within the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) team.

However, both FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have not yet confirmed the final list of referees and have described circulating media reports as unverified.

The selection process involves several stages of evaluation. Referees are monitored during continental and international competitions, where their technical performance and physical fitness are assessed before the final group of officials is selected.

Officials currently reported to be on the preliminary list include Algeria’s Mustapha Ghorbal, DR Congo’s Jean-Jacques Ndala, Egypt’s Amin Omar, Gabon’s Pierre Atcho, Mauritania’s Beida Dahane, Senegal’s Issa Sy, Somalia’s Omar Artan, South Africa’s Tom Abunjil, Sudan’s Mahmoud Ismail and Morocco’s Jalal Jiyed.

The list is expected to be reduced in the coming months as further assessments are conducted before FIFA confirms the final officials for the tournament.