MLS official Drew Fischer, who was the Video Assistant Referee for the 2020 MLS Cup Final, has been appointed as a Video Match Official for the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup.
Fischer’s first match in the booth was Al Duhail vs. Al Ahly on Feb. 4. He then served as the AVAR for the Bayern Munich vs. Al Ahly semifinal match Monday.
Fischer will close out his FIFA Club World Cup duties with a VAR assignment for the third-place game between Al Ahly and Palmeiras.
It is the latest major assignment for the 40-year-old Canadian, who made his debut as an MLS referee in a regular season match between the New England Revolution and New York Red Bulls on August 7, 2012, his first of 137 MLS regular season matches as a referee.
Fischer also served as a VAR for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019 and has been a referee for the Concacaf U-20 Championship (2017) and MLS All-Star Game (2019).
Fischer has worked 26 MLS regular season games as the Video Assistant Referee.
It is far from the first time that an MLS official has been selected for the Club World Cup. Indeed, since 2016 there has been at least one MLS official present at the event.
- 2013 – Mark Geiger, Sean Hurd, Joe Fletcher
- 2016 – Mark Geiger
- 2017 – Mark Geiger
- 2018 – Jair Marrufo, Frank Anderson, Corey Rockwell, Mark Geiger
- 2019 – Ismail Elfath, Kyle Atkins, Corey Parker
- 2020 – Drew Fischer
While Fischer didn't get an assignment for the final between Tigres and Bayern Munich on Thursday, PRO has previously had officials assigned to four finals
- 2013 – Mark Geiger (4th official), Sean Hurd (5th official)
- 2017 – Mark Geiger (VAR)
- 2018 – Jair Marrufo (Referee), Frank Anderson (AR1), Corey Rockwell (AR2), Mark Geiger (AVAR)
- 2019 – Kyle Atkins (AVAR)
