3 min readUpdated: Jun 17, 2026 05:19 PM IST Somewhere in Qom, south of Tehran, there is a poster of Alireza Faghani standing with Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino, all three of them giving a thumbs-up after last year’s Club World Cup final. In the original photograph, Faghani is wearing a medal. In the poster, the medal has been replaced with a potato. The caption reads: “Congratulations on your medal, traitor.” On Tuesday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — the same venue as that Club World Cup final — Faghani took charge of France vs Senegal. He denied Kylian Mbappé a penalty after consulting the pitchside monitor, awarded a goal-kick, and France won 3-1. Routine, for a referee officiating his fourth consecutive World Cup, a record no one else holds. Nothing else about his presence here is routine. Faghani was born in Kashmar, Iran, the son of a referee. He had a short-lived playing career before picking up the whistle himself in 1994. He became a FIFA referee in 2008 and built a career …