The official officiating crew for the first 2024 FIFA World Cup semifinal has been confirmed, with 35-year-old Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton set to take charge of the high-stakes match between France and Spain on Tuesday. This assignment marks Barton’s fourth officiating appointment at this year’s tournament, bringing his experience at the global event to one of its biggest stages.
Throughout the current World Cup, Barton has already overseen three prior matches, with the most widely discussed incident coming during a group-stage clash between Turkey and Paraguay. In that contest, Paraguay star Miguel Almiron was shown a red card and sent off after covering his mouth amid an on-field confrontation with other players. To date, that ejection remains the only red card Barton has issued across his three matches at the tournament. His other previous World Cup assignments this year include group-stage fixtures between Japan and Sweden, and Switzerland and Colombia, giving him familiarity with the pace and physicality of top international competition ahead of the semifinal.
Alongside Barton, the full match official team has also been finalized. David Moran of El Salvador and Antonio Pupiro of Nicaragua will serve as Barton’s assistant referees, while Sweden’s Glenn Nyberg has been named the fourth official for the fixture. The video assistant referee (VAR) team will be led by Poland’s Tomasz Kwiatkowski, with support from Dennis Higler of the Netherlands and Guillermo Pacheco of Mexico.
The France-Spain semifinal, the first of two final-four matches scheduled at this year’s World Cup, will be hosted at AT&T Stadium, the home ground of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys. The second semifinal will follow a day later on Wednesday, when England face off against Argentina in Atlanta at the venue originally announced for the fixture.