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2026 FIFA World Cup
25JUL

Collina counts time-wasting sanctions, denies bias

2 min read
11:57UTC

Pierluigi Collina published FIFA's officiating review on 30 June, counting eleven reversed throw-ins and ten group-stage red cards. He rejected complaints of bias against his officials on the record.

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Key takeaway

Collina published group-stage enforcement counts and rejected bias claims against his match officials.

Pierluigi Collina, FIFA's chief refereeing officer and the referee who took charge of the 2002 World Cup final, published FIFA's officiating review on 30 June, itemising how the new time-wasting rules had been enforced across the 72 group-stage matches 1. The rules cap the time a team may take over a restart, and they were written to stop the late-game stalling that referees previously handled with a warning.

The five-second goal-kick limit was breached four times, conceding a corner on each occasion; the five-second throw-in limit was breached eleven times, with the throw reversed every time. One substituted player failed to leave the pitch inside ten seconds 2. Collina also counted ten red cards in those 72 matches, six of them for DOGSO (denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity), a high rate for that particular offence by World Cup standards.

Collina answered complaints of bias on the record: "unfounded allegations have no place in our sport. Nobody can question the integrity of the FIFA World Cup match officials." 3 His review does not name the complaints or say who made them, so a reader cannot check the rebuttal against the charge.

Infantino has already declared this format a success, with a wider field to be studied now the tournament has finished . Collina's figures describe a pool of officials handling 72 fixtures in the group stage alone, inside a three-week window; every added team lengthens that window or thickens the schedule inside it, and the referee pool is recruited years ahead.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Pierluigi Collina is FIFA's chief refereeing officer, responsible for how match officials are trained and assessed at the World Cup. On 30 June he published a report giving exact numbers for how new anti-time-wasting rules were enforced during the group stage: goalkeepers who took too long on goal kicks were penalised four times, slow throw-ins eleven times, and ten red cards were shown, six of them for denying a clear goalscoring chance. In the same report, Collina directly rejected claims that referees were biased, saying 'nobody can question the integrity' of World Cup officials. The report only covers the group stage, published on 30 June before the knockout rounds, so it does not address decisions made later in the tournament, when matches carried higher stakes.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Collina's rebuttal relies on tournament-wide totals rather than case-by-case review data for specific incidents such as the Argentina v Egypt call, so it answers a different question than the one bias complaints actually raise.

The report's 30 June publication date means it covers only the group stage's 10 red cards, not the round of 16 through the final, where refereeing scrutiny typically intensifies as stakes rise.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    Collina's tournament-wide figures answer aggregate fairness questions but leave specific contested decisions, such as the Argentina v Egypt call, without case-level review published.

Sources:FIFA
Mentions:FIFA →Argentina →Egypt →World Cup →Pierluigi Collina →
First Reported In

Update #48 · World Cup review counts deaths, not goals

FIFA· 25 Jul 2026
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