Uruguayan referee Gustavo Tejera, who has officiated at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, works as an insurance broker, running GT Brokers, an advisory firm. Tejera, born in Montevideo in January 1988, has held FIFA International Referee status since 2018. He debuted in Uruguay's top flight in 2015 and has since officiated at Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers, including the 2025 Liga AUF Uruguaya final between Peñarol and Nacional. At the 2026 World Cup, his assignments included South Korea's group match against Mexico and Australia's Round of 32 tie against Egypt.

According to Transfermarkt data cited during the tournament, he has overseen 344 matches and shown 1,733 yellow cards - an average of just over five per game, making him one of the stricter officials on the FIFA list.

Running an insurance advisory business without the backing of a larger agency means client relationships and renewals fall to Tejera directly, work that continues around a refereeing schedule built on short notice, long-haul travel and weekend fixtures.

How sports officials are insured globally

The insurance frameworks covering match officials vary significantly by country and sport, but the underlying risk categories are consistent across markets: personal accident, public liability, professional indemnity and assault protection.

In the United States, the National Association of Sports Officials operates what it describes as the most comprehensive insurance programme in the officiating industry, providing members with up to $6 million per occurrence in liability coverage alongside dedicated assault protection - covering up to $25,000 in medical costs, up to $4,500 in legal fees for bringing a claim against a perpetrator, and up to $1,000 for lost game fees following an assault. At least 25 US states have enacted laws specifically addressing assault on sports officials, creating an enhanced legal protection framework that insurers and officiating bodies cite as a deterrent measure alongside cover itself.

In Australia and other markets, specialist sports insurers offer personal accident, third-party liability and equipment cover for officials across multiple sports, with some policies extending to worldwide cover for referees officiating abroad. The coverage architecture - injury, liability, assault - is broadly consistent across markets, though the mandatory status of cover, the identity of the scheme administrator and the claims history behind each product differ materially between countries.

Abuse of officials: a global retention crisis

That cover addresses a documented and worsening global risk. A survey of nearly 1,300 football referees across Europe, Oceania and North America found that more than 93% had been verbally abused and almost one in five reported physical abuse. Around half said they were considering quitting the game.

UEFA's head of referees, Roberto Rosetti, has described the situation as "a vocational crisis," noting that roughly one in seven registered match officials quit the game every year and that UEFA's 55 member associations are approximately 40,000 referees short. In August 2023 UEFA launched its first ever referee recruitment campaign in response.

The picture is similar in North America. NASO's 2023 National Officiating Survey, drawing on responses from 35,813 sports officials, found that nearly 12% had been physically assaulted during or after a sporting event, more than 50% had feared for their safety because of administrator, coach, player or spectator behaviour, and 68.81% said sportsmanship was getting worse - up from 57% in the equivalent 2017 survey. Among new referees specifically, 80% of respondents said they decided to quit within two years because of rude or abusive behaviour from parents or coaches.

High-profile incidents have illustrated the severity at the professional level. Turkish referee Halil Umut Meler - a Euro 2024 official - was punched to the ground after the final whistle of a Süper Lig match in December 2023, sustaining a fracture under his eye. His attacker, the president of one of the clubs contesting the game, was arrested and banned from football for life. The insurance response to these conditions differs by market. In the US, where most grassroots officials operate as independent contractors rather than employees, officials do not have access to workers' compensation through their officiating organisation and must rely on personal insurance or civil claims for recovery. That gap between employment status and coverage entitlement is a recurring design challenge for schemes serving the grassroots officiating population across multiple jurisdictions - and one that specialist insurers in each market are working around rather than through.

The combination of a documented global retention crisis, worsening sportsmanship data, and the structural insurance gap for independent contractor officials makes referee cover a line with both growing claims demand and growing product development interest across the markets where the sport is played.