410. The Coach
Didier Deschamps, the head coach of the French national football team, has held a post-match press conference. France lost to Spain in a World Cup semifinal. At the press conference, Deschamps asked the following question: "Does the referee possess the required level to manage a World Cup semifinal?" He was asking about the referee who had managed the World Cup semifinal that had just concluded. The question was asked after the match. The match was the evidence he was working with.
Deschamps has coached the French national team for over a decade. He won the World Cup with France in 2018. He has managed matches at the highest level of international football for a long time. He was at this World Cup semifinal. The referee was also at the World Cup semifinal. FIFA placed both of them there. FIFA's assessment of the referee, conducted before the match, was that the referee possessed the required level. Deschamps' question, asked after the match, concerned the same referee and the same level. The assessments arrived at different times and produced different impressions.
(FIFA selects referees for World Cup matches through a process that includes evaluation of qualifications, experience, and demonstrated capacity to manage high-level matches. The process is designed to ensure that the referees at the World Cup semifinal level possess the required level. The process was completed. The referee was assigned. The match was managed. Deschamps' press conference was the occasion on which the question about whether the process had produced the correct result was raised. The question was raised by someone who had been on the losing side of the result.)
The match ended 2-1 in favor of Spain. Whether the referee's decisions contributed to this outcome is a matter that Deschamps did not specify in the portion of the press conference available in reporting. He asked the question about the required level. The question is open-ended. It does not identify a specific decision or a specific moment. It inquires about the referee as a general category of official equipped or not equipped for the occasion. The occasion has now concluded. The answer to the question, if there is one, would apply to matches that have not yet been played.
Referees at major tournaments are typically assessed after their matches by FIFA officials responsible for such assessments. Whether the referee in question will be assessed as having or not having the required level is a determination FIFA will make through its normal processes. Those processes take place in rooms that do not include Deschamps. His press conference took place in a room that did not include the referee or FIFA's assessment panel. All parties were in different rooms. The conclusions reached in the various rooms have not been compared.
France will not play in the World Cup final. Spain will play in the World Cup final. The referee will move on to other assignments or not, depending on FIFA's assessment, which is ongoing. Deschamps has asked his question. The question is in the record. The tournament continues without France, as tournaments do when a team does not advance. The referee remains, for now, the person who managed the match. The required level, as a standard, is still being determined.