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A World Cup Referee Runs 8 Miles Per Match. Here Is the Fitness Test They Have to Pass.
July 23, 2026
FIFA referees cover eight miles a match and sprint on demand. The two-part fitness test they pass every year is one runners can try at any track.
A top FIFA referee covers twelve to thirteen kilometres during a single 90-minute match.
That is roughly eight miles of running, most of it broken into short sprints and jog recoveries under stadium lights.
To keep that job, they pass a two-part fitness test every year: six 40-metre sprints and 40 repeats of 75 metres.
The workout is public, and any runner with access to a track can try it this weekend.
What follows is the exact test, the times pro refs have to hit, and how to scale it if you want a taste of referee fitness without failing on rep three.
The job description hidden inside the fitness test
A referee is not a distance athlete. They are a repeat-sprint athlete with 90 minutes of endurance underneath the sprints.
The men's test asks a top referee to run 40 metres in six seconds or less.
That is roughly a 15-second 100-metre pace, held six times with one minute of recovery in between.
Then, after a brief rest, they do it again forty more times over a longer distance and at a slower pace, with no full recoveries in between.
That is where the endurance side lives.
Assistant referees, who patrol the sideline, cover slightly less total distance but log more explosive sprints along the touchline than the centre official.
Either job is a running job.
The FIFA test, broken down into two workouts you can copy
Workout 1: The 40-metre sprint test (speed)
This is the honest part of the test. There is nowhere to hide over 40 metres.
The setup is six sprints of 40 metres, with about a minute of walking recovery between each one.
Top-level men's referees must complete each rep in six seconds or less. Top-level women's referees must hit 6.4 seconds or less.
A useful way to think about it: six seconds for 40 metres is roughly a nine-second 60-metre pace. Most recreational distance runners are nowhere near that.
That is a good thing, because it exposes exactly the gear a marathon builds over.
To try it, warm up thoroughly. Do ten minutes of easy jogging plus a full set of drills: A-skips, high knees, and two or three short strides at 80 to 90 percent.
Then run six timed 40-metre sprints from a standing start, walking back between reps.
Note your times honestly.
Workout 2: The 40 x 75-metre interval test (repeat-sprint endurance)
Where the sprint test measures top-end speed, this one measures whether that speed holds up when the legs are already tired.
The format is 40 repeats of 75 metres, each followed by 25 metres of walking. That adds up to 4,000 metres of continuous work, or ten laps of a standard 400-metre track.
For men's referees, each 75-metre run must be completed in 15 seconds, followed by an 18-second walk. For women's referees, the run target is 17 seconds and the walk is 20 seconds.
That pace is not a jog. Fifteen seconds for 75 metres is roughly a 3:20 kilometre pace, held on and off for 40 reps in a row.
The tricky part is not the first ten reps. It is the last ten, when the legs are heavy and the walk starts to feel too short.
That failure point is exactly where matches are lost too.
How to scale the test if you are not a pro referee
Trying to hit the full FIFA standard cold is a bad idea. It is also unnecessary.
A smart first attempt: run three 40-metre sprints at your best effort with two minutes of walking between each. Then take a five-minute break and try 10 to 15 repeats of the 75-metre interval at a hard but sustainable pace.
That is roughly one-third of the referee workload and a fair introduction.
If it feels manageable in a week or two, push to 20 reps and progress from there.
This kind of workout translates well for road runners because it targets repeated high-intensity efforts rather than a single flat-out mile. Refs and marathoners are closer cousins than the sports suggest.
Why this workout is useful for distance runners, not just soccer fans
Most distance runners neglect true top-end speed. A weekly session of short sprints improves stride mechanics, neuromuscular recruitment, and running economy, all of which show up at slower race paces.
The 75-metre interval half of the test works a different system.
Short, hard repeats with incomplete recovery train the body to clear lactate and re-accelerate under fatigue, which is a marathon skill, especially in the closing miles.
If you already race, treat the referee workout as a once-every-two-weeks stimulus, not a staple.
Combine it with your usual easy mileage, one longer run, and a strength session.
For a wider look at how sprint work and easy mileage fit together, our guide on combining running and strength training without burning out covers the weekly balance.
For a broader take on the training habits of elite performers across sport, see our piece on the surprising benefits of running on tired legs.
One honest warning
Sprint work is the fastest way to pull a hamstring if the warm-up is short. Do the drills, do the strides, and stop the session the moment form starts to break down.
FIFA publishes its match official fitness standards on its official refereeing hub if you want to see the current benchmarks in full.
Try the test, and compare your times to the pros.
Nobody expects you to hit the six-second mark on rep six, but you might find out that your top-end gear is faster than you thought.
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