Wilton Pereira Sampaio (born 28 December 1981) is a Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 on

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 ...

's list of international referees since 2013. His younger brother Sávio Pereira Sampaio is also a referee and on FIFA's list since 2022.

Professional

Pereira Sampaio began refereeing at age 15, qualified in Brasilia in 2000 and currently represents the

Federação Goiana de Futebol The Federação Goiana de Futebol (English: Football Association of Goiás state) was founded on November 1, 1939, and manages all the official football tournaments within the state of Goiás, which are the Campeonato Goiano, the Campeonato Goiano ...

and

. He was elected as one of the best referees in the

2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The 2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (known as the Brasileirão Petrobras 2012 for sponsorship reasons) was the 56th edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-level of professional football in Brazil. Corinthians come in as the d ...

championships. Sampaio was considered too short by Brazilian referee head, Armando Marques, but after Marques left in 2005, Sampaio was given more high profile games. Sampaio was part of the

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee. The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...

(VAR) team when it was introduced in the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

. He also refereed in both the

2021 FIFA Arab Cup The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup () was the 10th edition of the Arab Cup, the Arab world's national team football tournament; it was the first edition under FIFA's jurisdiction. It took place between 30 November and 18 December in Qatar, as a p ...

and

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

in Qatar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sampaio, Wilton Pereira 1981 births Brazilian football referees Living people Sportspeople from Goiás Copa América referees 2022 FIFA World Cup referees