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.
