FIFA has announced the list of match officials for the 2026 World Cup, with no Ghanaian referee included for the tournament to be hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The development is a setback for Ghana, especially for Daniel Laryea, who was widely expected to contend for a place. The experienced official strengthened his profile after handling the semi-final between Morocco and Nigeria at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. 

Despite his steady performances and rising standing, Laryea did not make the final selection, which features a blend of seasoned referees from different parts of the world.

Among those named are prominent officials such as Szymon Marciniak, Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor. Africa’s representatives on the list include Mustapha Ghorbal and Abongile Tom.

In total, FIFA has appointed dozens of referees, assistant referees and video officials drawn from all confederations, reflecting an effort to ensure global representation at the tournament. 

Ghana’s absence from the officiating roster means the country will not be represented among match officials, even though the Ghana national football team are set to compete at the tournament, where they will face Panama, Croatia and England in the group stage.

The 2026 World Cup is scheduled to begin on June 11 and will be the first edition expanded to 48 teams, staged across multiple host cities in North America.

The full list of selected referees is as follows:

- Abdulrahman Al Jassim (Qatar)

- Khalid Al Turais (Saudi Arabia)

- Yusuke Araki (Japan)

- Omar Abdulkadir Artan (Somalia)

- Pierre Atcho (Gabon)

- Ivan Barton (El Salvador)

- Dahane Beida (Mauritania)

- Juan Gabriel Benitez (Paraguay)

- Juan Calderon (Costa Rica)

- Raphael Claus (Brazil)

- Ismail Elfath (USA)

- Espen Eskas (Norway)

- Alireza Faghani (Australia)

- Yael Falcon Perez (Argentina)

- Drew Fischer (Canada)

- Cristian Garay (Chile)

- Katia Garcia (Mexico)

- Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria)

- Alejandro Hernandez (Spain)

- Dario Herrera (Argentina)

- Jalal Jayed (Morocco)

- Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh (New Zealand)

- Istvan Kovacs (Romania)

- Francois Letexier (France)

- Ning Ma (China)

- Adham Makhadmeh (Jordan)

- Danny Makkelie (Netherlands)

- Szymon Marciniak (Poland)

- Maurizio Mariani (Italy)

- Hector Said Martinez (Honduras)

- Amin Mohamed (Egypt)

- Oshane Nation (Jamaica)

- Glenn Nyberg (Sweden)

- Michael Oliver (England)

- Omar Al Ali (UAE)

- Kevin Ortega (Peru)

- Tori Penso (USA)

- Joao Pinheiro (Portugal)

- Ramon Abatti (Brazil)

- Cesar Ramos (Mexico)

- Andres Rojas (Colombia)

- Sandro Schaerer (Switzerland)

- Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)

- Anthony Taylor (England)

- Gustavo Tejera (Uruguay)

- Facundo Tello (Argentina)

- Abongile Tom (South Africa)

- Clement Turpin (France)

- Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela)

- Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)

- Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)

- Felix Zwayer (Germany)