One of New Zealand’s highest-profile referees, Matt Conger, has announced his retirement from FIFA’s international roster.
Palmerston North-based Conger (45) has been refereeing for 30 years, and was on the FIFA officials’ panel since 2012.
After moving to New Zealand from the United States in 2001, Conger refereed games at club and national league level, before officiating OFC fixtures.
His first FIFA tournament was the 2015 FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup, hosted in New Zealand.
He officiated at two Olympic Games—the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2021 Tokyo events—and the FIFA Men’s World Cups in Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022.
Conger, who works as a regional sports director for Sport Manawatū, says he wants to support referees coming through the development system.
“If you develop really good people, then you get good referees out of it,” he told the Manawatu Standard.
“It’s a human game, played by humans, refereed by humans and it’s full of emotion.
“Equipping referees with better skills to navigate that and the support systems, especially at the organisational level, really is critical in terms of making sure we keep people in the game for longer.”
In December 2023, Conger publicly shared his ideas for improving onfield behaviour, adding to the global discussion on how to reduce player dissent and ‘mobbing’ of referees.
READ MORE: Top ref Matt Conger floats ideas for rule tweaks to improve onfield behaviour >>>>
Main photo: Matt Conger … more than a decade at the top international level. Photo credit: Sarah Stier – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images.
This story was first published on July 22, 2024.
More football stories
