Lencie Fred

Who is Lencie Fred?

Lencie Fred is a former international association football referee from Vanuatu. He was the first referee from his country to be included on the FIFA list of referees. Fred started refereeing at a young age and was named as an assistant referee for the 1996 Summer Olympics. He assisted Pierluigi Collina in the final of that competition between Nigeria and Argentina, allowing a controversial late winning goal for Nigeria. Two years later, he was selected to be an assistant at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and officiated five games during the tournament, including the third place match between Netherlands and Croatia.

Fred was appointed to the list of FIFA referees in 2000, but was largely inactive during the first part of the decade. He refereed the second leg of the Oceania Preliminary Competition for the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship, which saw Australia beat New Zealand 6–0. He eventually became one of the most senior referees in the Oceania Football Confederation, regularly officiating international matches on that continent.