Meet the Latina Match Officials at the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Art by Stephany Torres
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is almost here, and our communities will be following the nine teams from Latin America representing us in the competition (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Uruguay), but also other names from our communities that will be leaving their mark in the competition, like the referees. And after the Qatar 2022 World Cup featured women referees for the first time, the 2026 World Cup is following in those footsteps.
In this World Cup, we’ll see three Latinas participate as referees. Katia García (Mexico), who will be a lead referee, Sandra Ramírez (Mexico), who will be an assistant referee, and Tatiana Guzmán (Nicaragua), who will be a Video Assistant Referee. No exact match assignments have been released yet, as FIFA typically announces referee designations 48 to 72 hours before each match to maintain tournament integrity.
There has also been no announcement as to whether they will referee only group matches or will continue onto the knockout rounds, as that is usually decided based on performance.
Katia Itzel García is a referee from Mexico. She began her professional refereeing career in 2017 and has since officiated matches domestically for Liga MX matches and internationally at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Sandra Ramírez is an assistant referee from Mexico. Prior to the World Cup she was a referee at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2023 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Then there’s Nicaragua’s Tatiana Guzmán. She’s going to be the Video Assistant referee. And she was the first women to referee a men’s first division match in her country.
Qatar 2022 had two Latinas as assistant referees, Neuza Back (Brazil) and Karen Díaz Medina (Mexico). The two of them, alongside Stéphanie Frappart (France), formed the tournament’s historic first all-female refereeing crew during a Germany vs. Costa Rica match.
Many years before, the first woman to referee a FIFA tournament match was Brazilian Cláudia Vasconcelos Guedes at the 1991 Women’s World Cup.