Officials and video refereeing: one referee decides, and video can be asked to look again.

The referee

Every bout at an official FIE competition is directed by a referee who holds an FIE licence for the current season (Technical Rules, December 2024, t.47.1). The rules list the referee's duties, among them calling the fencers, directing the bout, checking weapons, clothing and equipment before each bout, supervising the electrical apparatus, directing the judges, timekeepers and scorers, penalising faults, awarding hits and keeping order (t.47.2).

The referee is the person who awards hits. The apparatus registers them, but the referee may not award a hit the apparatus has not properly registered, apart from penalty hits and the foil substitution case (t.54.1 and t.54.2). At foil and sabre the referee alone applies the conventions to decide validity and priority (t.82 and t.100); at epee the apparatus and the epee rules decide, with no priority (t.92).

A referee may not combine refereeing with another role at the same tournament, such as team captain, trainer or member of the Directoire Technique (t.46.2). Team matches have two referees (t.51).

Judges

Two judges, one on each side of the piste, may assist the referee. They watch for use of the unarmed hand or arm, covering or substituting the target, hits on the floor at epee, and fencers leaving the piste. Judges are obligatory for the individual finals of four fencers and for the final of team events (t.48). Under the amendments adopted by the FIE Congress on 22 November 2025, judges must be of a different nationality from the fencers, the main referee and the video referee on the piste (t.48.1; read from the decisions document, as a clean 2026 edition of the Technical Rules could not be opened).

Video refereeing

Where it is compulsory

Under the Organisation Rules (August 2026, o.105), video refereeing is compulsory at all three weapons at:

• Grand Prix events;
• Senior World Cup individual and team events;
• Junior and Cadet World Championships;
• World Championships;
• the Olympic Games;
• Zonal Championships and Olympic qualification events.

It is optional at the Veteran World Championships. The scoring apparatus clock measures hundredths of a second and passes the time to the video refereeing system (Material Rules, August 2026, Annexe B).

Who can ask, and how often

Only the fencer on the piste may request a video review, and a fencer whose appeal the referee upholds keeps it (t.60 to t.62). The December 2024 PDF's text layer did not allow every sentence to be tied to its exact sub-article; the 2025 Congress decisions cite the block as t.60 to t.62.

How a review works

• The action may be replayed at most four times, in real time or slow motion (t.62).
• At a tied score, the referee must use video before deciding the deciding hit (t.62).
• The video official may also ask for a review, and the referee's decision after review is final (t.62.4, as numbered in the 2025 Congress amendment text).
• At the finals of the Olympic Games and of the senior, junior and cadet World Championships, the replays being reviewed must be shown on a screen the spectators can see (t.60 to t.62).

Video consultant or video-referee

The December 2024 rules call the video official a video consultant: an FIE-licensed referee for the year, trained for video, of a different nationality from both fencers and the main referee (t.49). As the 2025 Congress decisions document reads, the role is renamed "video-referee" and must also be of a different nationality from the judges. That reading comes from tracked-change text that loses its formatting when extracted, so it is unconfirmed until a clean 2026 edition of the Technical Rules can be read.

Nationality and conflicts of interest

The December 2024 rules (t.50.3) say:

• pool referees must be of a different nationality from every fencer in the pool;
• direct elimination referees are drawn by computer, by quarter of the table, from a list of the best referees at each weapon, of a nationality different from any fencer in that quarter;
• referees must declare potential conflicts of interest at the referees' meeting before each competition.

The 2025 Congress decisions appear to soften the pool rule to "if possible" and to cut the quarter-table draw lists from "4 to 5" to "3 to 4" referees, with the t.50.3 conflict-of-interest change marked for immediate application (t.50.2 and t.50.3). These readings also come from tracked-change text and are unconfirmed.

The Directoire Technique

At official FIE competitions the Directoire Technique is named as a jurisdictional body alongside the referee (t.135 to t.139). Organisers must allow at least one day per weapon for checking fencers' equipment (Organisation Rules, o.34), and World Cup events must have at least four FIE A or B grade referees of different nationalities (o.4.3).

Becoming an FIE referee, and what comes next

The FIE's invitation to its referee examination in Cairo (28 to 31 October 2026) says candidates must be at least 20, are proposed by their national federations from among their best national referees, and receive FIE Referee Category "B" in the weapon tested if they pass every part; the examination has separate practical tests for foil, epee and sabre. Under its Strategic Plan 2025-2028 the FIE has set up an Initial Working Group to build a framework for interpreting and applying its rules, with referee training, examinations, licensing and continuing development due in a second phase by the first quarter of 2027 (Information Letter 10-26, 8 July 2026). National referee ladders are on the how people learn page.