Tag Archives: FIFA

The soccer referee’s game is often seen as cognitive rather than physical. But while the cognitive element of their game receives attention, the sheer scale of this task is perhaps overlooked. The total distance covered by a referee in a single match is in the region of 12km, of which 889m is at high speed (above 19.8 km/h) with approximately 30 full sprints (above 25.2 km/h) over the 90 minutes.

It has become fashionable to say that hosting the World Cup was a mistake, and that the competition will only expose Brazil’s economic weakness, social inequalities, and political tensions. These arguments are tendentious and based on selective reasoning.