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108Refereeing reportREFEREEING REPORTAuthor: Massimo BusaccaThe FIFA Referees Committee appointed25 referee trios and eight support duosrepresenting 43 different countries for the2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil.The instruction and monitoring of theseofficials began in 2012 with the FIFApreparation project “Road to Brazil” forreferees and assistant referees for the 2014FIFA World Cup Brazil, which included a teamof FIFA instructors with expertise in a range ofareas.All of these referees and assistant referees hadpreviously taken part in regular preparationand monitoring workshops, as well as FIFAcompetitions. Furthermore, a virtual platformwas launched to enable close communicationwith the referees, as well as continuouscontrol and monitoring.In addition to the technical and physicalactivities, thorough medical examinationswere carried out during the project.The referees were also reminded of theimportance of having the support andcooperation of players and coaches, andensuring fair play was a common goal.There was an opportunity to communicateand exchange views with the coachesand officials of the 32 participatingteams about FIFA’s philosophy and thekey points of the preparation duringthe team workshop in Florianópolis inmid-February. Massimo Busacca, FIFA’sHead of Refereeing: “It was anothermilestone in the preparation. To havethe opportunity to speak to these greatcoaches was a very important momentin our preparation work. We talked, forinstance, about tackles and the differentcircumstances in which a player should becautioned for unsporting behaviour. Wealso discussed with them other topics suchas the use and the advantages of goal-linetechnology and the vanishing spray, whichare both a big help to the match officials.Discussion about fair play between theplayers, coaches and referees is hugely