The World Cup is about to kick off in Brazil. Even those who are not football/soccer fans will be watching to see how well Brazil pulls off this world event ahead of Rio hosting the 2016 Olympics. It should be interesting for those sport fans as well as logistical fans! 🙂
Could You Be a Referee at the World Cup?
But, while all of the attention is on the teams, there is a group of people who will be extremely important in this world famous sporting event. Those people are the World Cup referees. Decisions made by them will need to be made quickly and with accuracy. To do so, they must be within 20 yards of the ball at all times. As runners, we enjoy our training runs and the races that follow. But, as a dedicated runner, do you think that you could be a referee at the World Cup with their fitness standards? To start with, they run between 6 – 8 miles per game!
Runner’s World has put together a nice article with an interview of the only US referee at the games. According to him, the FIFA test for referees is as follows:
“The test requires you to complete six 40-meter sprints with 90 seconds of rest in between. Each sprint has to be faster than six seconds. After another 10-minute recovery, you are then required to complete 10 laps on the track, running 150 meters in 30 seconds and walking 50 meters in 35 seconds—a 2.5-mile fartlek in 21:30 with an average running pace of 5:20 per mile.”
That’s right – the referees must perform that test with their average running pace at 5:20 per mile! That is pretty fast! In order for referees to meet this requirement and perform well at the games, they also run a decent amount of miles per week in training with a low end of 20 miles per week. To read the whole article from Runner’s World, click here. How about it? Could you qualify to be a referee at the World Cup?
