{"id":371378,"date":"2026-07-13T18:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371378\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T18:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:04:07","slug":"france-vs-spain-referees-for-the-2026-world-cup-semifinal-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/371378\/","title":{"rendered":"France vs Spain referees for the 2026 World Cup semifinal \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 FIFA<\/a> World Cup<\/a> wraps up at Dallas Stadium on Tuesday at 2 p.m. when France plays Spain<\/a> in the first Semifinal. The winner is headed to New York for the final. The loser will play in Miami on Saturday for third place.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlliance Fran\u00e7aise de Dallas, a decades-old French school, has been co-hosting watch parties throughout the World Cup as France prepares to face Spain in a semifinal match at Dallas Stadium. The decades-old French school is ready to welcome the team to Texas \u2014 and connect local fans eager to say \u201cbonjour.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Refereeing has made headlines this tournament, including the quarterfinals. Switzerland was outraged after referee Jo\u00e3o Pinheiro<\/a> reversed a yellow card decision in the second half against Argentina that ended up sending a Swiss player off instead<\/a> – it’s a new rule FIFA calls “mistaken identity<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Norway was equally as outraged when Jude Bellingham’s equalizer for England was not overturned. Norway argued the ball hit an aerial camera cable in the lead-up, meaning play should have stopped, and a drop ball should have been utilized. FIFA disagreed<\/a>, and England went on to win<\/a> 2-1.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEngland had been eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals more than any other nation. But after beating Norway, the Three Lions rewrote that painful history, reaching the semifinals for just the fourth time and moving within two wins of their first World Cup title since 1966.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

FIFA announced Ivan Barton would be the lead referee for France-Spain.<\/p>\n

Barton was the first referee to issue a red card for mouth-covering to Paraguay’s Miguel Almiron<\/a> last month. Paraguay held on to their 1-0 win over Turkiye despite playing a man down for the entire second half. Almiron later apologized to his team for the mistake. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA loophole players used for years to hide abuse on the pitch finally has a consequence at the 2026 World Cup.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Two players in total have been sent off with red cards for covering their mouths while confronting an opponent. FIFA established the new rule to prevent players from hiding abusive, discriminatory, or offensive language while on the field. FIFA president Gianni Infantino pushed for the rule after Benfica\u2019s Gianluca Prestianni tried to hide verbal insults toward Real Madrid’s Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior in a Champions League game.<\/p>\n

Almiron was also carded under the mistaken identity rule in the opening match against the USMNT after video review overturned a yellow card issued to Tim Ream.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA yellow card was taken away from USMNT defender Tim Ream and given to Paraguay’s Miguel Almir\u00f3n instead. Here’s why.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

There have been multiple officiating controversies to come out of the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n

FIFA’s refereeing chief rejected claims of bias in Argentina\u2019s win after Egypt’s coach Hossam Hassan alleged after the match that there may have been pressure on the referee to keep Argentina in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEgypt is asking FIFA to investigate the officiating after its 3-2 loss to Argentina at the 2026 World Cup. The Egyptian Soccer Federation says key calls affected the match, while Argentina\u2019s comeback kept its tournament hopes alive. Some fans online have claimed Argentina received favorable treatment, but no evidence of corruption has been proven.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

European soccer leaders criticized FIFA’s decision to let USMNT striker Falorin Balogun play after a questionable red card in the second half of their win over Bosnia.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe U.S. is out of the World Cup, but the controversy is not over. After FIFA lifted Folarin Balogun\u2019s red card suspension, 35 European Union lawmakers are pushing for FIFA president Gianni Infantino to be investigated.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

There were also allegations of a video review official using a white supremacist gesture; the official said it was caused by a twitch, and FIFA announced no rules were breached.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 FIFA World Cup wraps up at Dallas Stadium on Tuesday at 2 p.m. when France plays…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3691,150,152,151,37274,731,154,3692],"class_list":["post-371378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-fifa","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}