Benito Archundia
Benito Armando Archundia Téllez (born March 21, 1966) is a Mexican former football referee. In Mexico he’s known as Armando Archundia, but FIFA records list him as Benito Archundia. He’s also a lawyer and economist. He started refereeing professionally in 1985 and became a FIFA-listed referee in 1993, retiring from international refereeing in 2010. His first international match was the 1994 game between the USA and Greece.
Archundia is the all-time leader in FIFA World Cup refereeing appearances, with eight matches, and is one of only two referees to reach eight World Cup matches. He also shares the record for most matches in a single World Cup, having refereed five games in 2006. He supervised FIFA Club World Cup finals in 2005 and 2009 and was the fourth official in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship final.
He planned to retire after the 2010 World Cup but continued for at least another year. He refereed the opening match at Estadio Omnilife in Guadalajara (Guadalajara vs Manchester United). In 2006 he officiated five World Cup matches, the most by any referee at that tournament, and his final World Cup game was the Germany vs. Italy semi-final. His last World Cup was 2010, where he refereed three matches, ending with the third-place play-off Germany vs. Uruguay. On June 27, 2007, he was the head referee of the Canada–USA semi-final; a late Hutchinson goal was disallowed, but video replays later showed there was no offside.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:13 (CET).