Assistant referee (association football)#Fifth official

As a fifth official is called in football assistant referees, who is nominated as a reserve account for the other two assistant referees to a game. He then will be used if any of these assistant referees should fail immediately prior to or during the game.

The fifth official was introduced by the football world governing body FIFA for the Soccer World Cup 2006. So far, the tasks of the fifth official is not yet part of the official soccer rules. At the 2006 World Cup it was common practice to determine as the fifth official one of the two assistant referees from the solid team of the nominated fourth official.

• Football referee