Gambian referee Bakary Papa Gassama has been appointed by the world football governing FIFA to serve as a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for the U-20 World Cup in June.
The FIFA Referees Committee appointed Gassama along with 27 other referees and 42 assistant referees for this year’s tournament in Poland. Twenty-one VARs have also been appointed for this tournament.
In 2018, Gassama led an A-list referee group selected by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the historic deployment of the VAR in the final of this year’s CAF inter-club tournaments.
The 40-year-old Gassama had experiences of being in the VAR room during the recent Confederations Cup finals and the 2018 World Cup both in Russia.
Meanwhile, The VARs will play a supporting role
along with the assistant referees and the fourth official, but the referee will
continue to take the first as well as the final decision on the field of play.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup Poland 2019 will take place between 23 May and 15 June
2019. The final will be played in Łódź on 15 June.
