Jair Marrufo (born June 7, 1977) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He has been a referee in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

since 2002 and a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

referee since 2007.

Career

Marrufo was 2008 MLS Referee of the Year. Marrufo was suspended by MLS for the remainder of the 2009 MLS season as of September 1, 2009, for poor performance over the course of the season, and subsequently on February 5, 2010, Marrufo was removed from the 2010 World Cup referee list. It was announced in 2013 that Marrufo would be a member of the newly formed

Professional Referee Organization Professional Referee Organization (PRO) is the organization responsible for managing the referee and assistant referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, working alongside the United States Soccer Federation ...

, the body responsible for refereeing appointments among the United States and Canada's top soccer leagues. On July 8, 2014, Marrufo was assigned to the

2014 MLS All-Star Game The 2014 AT&T Major League Soccer All-Star Game was the 19th annual Major League Soccer All-Star Game. It took place on August 6, 2014 at Providence Park, the home of MLS club Portland Timbers. The game was televised live on ESPN2 and UniMás ...

, to be played on August 6 at

Providence Park Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. ...

between an MLS All-Star team and

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. He also officiated a

2017 International Champions Cup The 2017 International Champions Cup (or ICC) was the fifth edition of a series of friendly association football matches, organized to simulate a tournament. It began on 18 July and ended on 30 July 2017. Teams Matches China ---- ---- ...

match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

between

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

on 29 July 2017, after which he was accused by Barcelona midfielder

Ivan Rakitić Ivan Rakitić (; born 10 March 1988) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a central or attacking midfielder for La Liga club Sevilla. Rakitić started his professional career at Basel and spent two seasons with them before he was s ...

of insulting him. Marrufo was selected to officiate in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and his first appointment was the Group G match between Belgium & Tunisia. Marrufo refereed the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup Final between

and

Al Ain FC Al Ain Football Club ( ar, نادي العين لكرة القدم; transliterated: Nady al-'Ayn) or Al Ain FC or simply Al Ain is a professional football club, based in the city of Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It is one of many spo ...

. He refereed the second leg of the 2019 Concacaf Champions League Final between

C.F. Monterrey Club de Fútbol Monterrey, often known simply as Monterrey or their nickname Rayados, is a Mexican professional football club based in Monterrey, Nuevo León which currently plays in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football. Founded on 28 ...

and

Tigres UANL Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Foun ...

on May 1, 2019. On May 17, 2019, Marrufo was appointed to be a referee for the

2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 15th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was primarily hosted in th ...

in the United States.

Personal life

His father, Antonio Marrufo, was a FIFA referee from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and served on the Mexican Referee Commission. Jair Marrufo speaks fluent English and Spanish. He is the husband of teacher and UTEP graduate Zinnia Mares Marrufo and they have two children together. He is of

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

descent.

Honors

* FIFA panel – 2007–present * Two Olympic qualifier tournaments * Beijing Olympics – 2008 * MLS Referee of the Year – 2008 * Two U-17 World Cups * MLS Cup Playoffs * Copa Central Americano – 2014 * MLS All-Star Game – 2014 * CONCACAF Gold Cup – 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 * MLS Cup – 2006, 2015, 2020 * Copa América – 2016 * FIFA World Cup - 2018 * CONCACAF Champions League Final – 2019

Card statistics

References

External links

*
archive
* * 1977 births Living people American soccer referees American sportspeople of Mexican descent People from El Paso, Texas CONCACAF Champions League referees CONCACAF Gold Cup referees Major League Soccer referees North American Soccer League referees 2018 FIFA World Cup referees Copa América referees {{US-footy-bio-stub