Local man is World Cup referee

There will be a Canadian on the field at the World Cup in Brazil this summer after all. St. Catharines referee Joe Fletcher got the nod from FIFA and he leaves later this month for his dream job.

“Theres not many Canadians who have ever got to do a FIFA final on any level, anywhere”

Joe Fletcher has been a FIFA referee since 2007. He rubs shoulders with sports mega stars but is no where near star struck: “In our world, integrity comes first. All I see is team A & team B go do a game.”

When judging elite soccer – one sin is the greatest of them all: “I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say I am one decision away from my career being over.”

During a game, Fletcher doesn’t have time to dwell on a bad call. Instead he disects it later: “If I made a mistake, why did I make a mistake, was I out of position, what can I do to prevent it from happening again. Sometimes the outside worlds perception is that you did it bc you didnt like somebody.”

There’s always talk about how fit athletes are. Little attention is given to what the ref goes through and there’s one myth Joe Fletcher wants to dispell: “We just get selected randomly from the general public, show up to a field, and then say time to referee.”

Fletcher trains four days a week to be world class at his craft: “Me going through off side dvds, watching clips of games, and the amount of training that actually goes into it to be fit. I’ll have a whole lot of lets run 30m, 40m, 50m and repeat the cycle.

He says the mental component is the hardest to master — he’s not always the most popular person: “You don’t have people cheering for you — guarantee half the people are gonna disagree with half of my calls just because they are cheering for their team.”

Geoff Gamble is an MLS referee: “There’s only been three Canadians that have ever gone to World Cup — it puts him in a very exclusive club.”

Joe: “Whether I am the lone Canadian or not — is feeling like you set a goal to do your best and try to accomplish it.