Waikato referee Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh has been appointed as a match official for the Paris Olympic Football Tournaments in July and August. 

Kawana-Waugh, of Hamilton, represents the Oceania Football Confederation, together with assistant referees Bernard Mutukera from the Solomon Islands and Kiwi Isaac Trevis. 

The Paris Olympic Games will be the third global tournament for Kawana-Waugh after he also officiated at the Fifa U20 men’s tournament and the Fifa Club World Cup last year. 

Mutukera was also a match official at the same 2023 tournament in Argentina, after earlier appearing at the Fifa U17 World Cup in 2017 and the Fifa U20 World Cup in 2019. 

For Trevis, from Christchurch, it will be his second global event after appearing at the Fifa U17 World Cup in 2019. 

In total, the Fifa Referees Committee has appointed 89 match officials (21 referees, 42 assistant referees, 20 video match officials and six support referees) from 45 countries to officiate the matches in Paris. 

The Paris Olympic women’s football tournament will start on July 25 and conclude with the gold medal match at the Parc des Princes in Paris on August 10. 

The men’s competition will begin on July 24, while the gold-medal match will take place on August 9, also at the Parc des Princes. 

The match officials’ preparation will be closely monitored before and during the Olympic Games by a team of Fifa technical trainers to provide the officials with guidance and support. 

The team of technical trainers includes referees and video assistant referee (VAR) instructors, as well as match analysts, fitness coaches, physiotherapists and sports scientists. 

Referees in both the women’s and men’s tournaments will be supported by goal‑line technology and the VAR system, including semi‑automated offside technology. 

While the Olympic Football Tournaments Paris 2024 are this year’s flagship football competitions, for the selected match officials, they represent the next important step on the road to the 2026 Fifa World Cup and the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup. 

The complete list of match officials appointed for the 2024 Olympic Football Tournaments in Paris can be found online. 

This story was published on the Herald, here