Drew Fischer (born July 10, 1980) is a Canadian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

referee who regularly officiates

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

games, and was approved for international matches in 2015.

Background

Fischer was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. As a teen in Calgary he began officiating to earn extra money. Fischer has been a professional referee since 2007. He was accredited to first-division games in North America in 2012 and has been

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

referee since 2015, only one of three Canadians at the time. He has a degree in physics from the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

Refereeing career

Fischer has officiated several

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship () is an annual soccer tournament contested by Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. It is contested by Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Va ...

matches since 2012. He officiated the finals of the Canadian Championship in 2013, 2016, and 2018. Fisher has also officiated several

matches since 2012. After obtaining FIFA status in 2015, Fischer was appointed to referee the 2015 CONCACAF Men's Under-17 Championship and the

2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship The 2015 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship was the fourteenth edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship, CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted association football, foot ...

. On June 23, 2017, it was announced that Fischer had been appointed to officiate in the

2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF, and 24th CONCACAF regional championship ove ...

. He was also appointed to be a

Video Assistant Referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

in France. In 2019 the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

began play and Fischer was one of the referees appointed during the inaugural season. Fischer has been involved in numerous high-profile tournaments and matches including: * Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Final – 2011 and 2013 * Amway Canadian Championship Final – 2012 and 2013 * CONCACAF Men’s U17 Championship 2015 * FIFA Men’s World Cup 2018 Qualifying * CONCACAF Gold Cup 2017 * FIFA Men’s U17 World Cup Brazil 2019 * FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 * CONCACAF Gold Cup 2021 * FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 * MLS Cup Final AR– 2020 * Concacaf Nations League Final AR– 2021 * FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2021 * FIFA Men’s World Cup 2022 Qualifying * CONCACAF League Final (1st Leg)- 2022 * MLS Cup Final AR- 2022 On May 19, 2022, Fischer was announced as one of 24 Video Match Officials appointed by FIFA for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022

Honours

MLS Referee of the Year Award The MLS Referee of the Year is a Major League Soccer award presented to the best Referee (association football), referee annually since 1997. Since 2008, the league has also presented an Assistant Referee of the Year award. The awards are voted on ...

: 2024 * Ray Morgan Memorial Award: 2022, 2023

References

External links

*
archive
* 1980 births Living people Canadian soccer referees CONCACAF Champions Cup referees Major League Soccer referees North American Soccer League (2011–2017) referees Soccer people from Alberta Sportspeople from Calgary {{Canada-footy-bio-stub