Referees at the World Cup have new rules to whistle during games

FIFA match officials, including Slovene referee Slavko Vincic, shown here issuing a yellow card in March, will have new rules to apply during the World Cup. Michael Campanella/Getty Images hide caption

LOS ANGELES — The referees chosen to work the 2026 World Cup have some new tools to speed up the games and ensure that any match-altering officiating mistakes are corrected.

Among the many changes that fans will see during the World Cup:

The chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, has long focused on time-wasting during games. At the last World Cup, four years ago in Qatar, he ensured that stoppage time was properly added during the competition. Some 90-minute matches saw as much as a half hour of added time.

There's another technological improvement that viewers will notice at this World Cup: Officials will wear an eye-level video headset, so fans can see a replay of the action as the referee saw it during key decisions.