The International Football Federation (FIFA) on Wednesday rejected the criticism leveled by Didier Deschamps, coach of the French national football team, against the level of refereeing in the World Cup semifinal match against Spain, stressing that the referees participating in the 2026 World Cup are 'world-class'. Italian Pierluigi Collina, head of the FIFA Referees Committee, told AFP in response to Deschamps' remarks, who questioned whether the match referee had the necessary level to officiate a World Cup semifinal: 'Yes, definitely, our referees are world-class'. Deschamps on Tuesday questioned the level of Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton, who officiated Tuesday's match. After his team's 2-0 loss to the European champions, he said: 'Does the referee have the required level to officiate a World Cup semifinal? I will not answer that. And it's not because we lost that I say this. There were many situations, and often they went against us as well.' He continued: 'But the first reason remains that we were slightly below par and less dangerous offensively than we could have been, with some technical errors and passes that could have created situations and chances.' Refereeing has faced several criticisms since the start of the World Cup in North America, especially from Egypt, which demanded the exclusion of French referee Francois Letexier due to 'major refereeing errors' that it said favored Argentina during their 3-2 win over the Pharaohs in the round of 16.