France faces Valenzuela in third-place playoff against England, despite Deschamps' criticism

FIFA has entrusted Venezuelan referee Jesus Valenzuela with officiating the third-place playoff between France and England, just days after France’s manager Didier Deschamps made scathing remarks about the standard of referees assigned to Les Bleus.

On Tuesday, following France’s elimination by Spain, the French coach openly questioned Salvador’s Ivan Barton, the referee of that match. “I’m going to ask a question: does the referee have the level to referee a semi-final?” he said, targeting several controversial decisions — including the leniency shown to Michael Olise after a stamp on Rodri. Pierluigi Collina, FIFA’s director of refereeing, responded sharply: “Our referees are world-class.”

Deschamps’ protests apparently had no bearing on the appointment. After Uzbek Ilgiz Tantashev in the round of 16 and Barton in the semi-final, Les Bleus now face a third non-European referee in as many knockout matches.

Valenzuela, 42, is no stranger to the French staff. He had already officiated the round of 16 match between France and Poland at the 2022 World Cup, which Les Bleus won 3-1. He also refereed the 0-0 draw between England and the United States during the group stage of that same tournament.

In this edition of the competition, the Venezuelan has already refereed three matches: the group stage matches Australia-Turkey and Bosnia-Qatar, then the round of 16 between Côte d’Ivoire and Norway.