It is just after 8.30am on Wednesday and Pierluigi Collina, microphone in hand, is standing at the front of a large conference room ready to address a sea of pink.More than 100 referees — all wearing their pink training tops — are sitting in front of him; 30 video assistant referees dialling in from Dallas; and the Italian, who has served as FIFA’s chief refereeing officer since 2017, is ready to deliver his opening remarks.“Morning, everyone,” he says, which is duly followed by the match officials, in unison, saying it back, almost reminiscent of how children would respond to their headteacher at school.This 8.30am get-together is a daily occurrence at their Grand Beach Hotel base in South Beach, Miami, and it has the referees on the edge of their seats.It is where they will find out whether they have been selected to officiate in the next round of group matches at this World Cup. If finding out whether they have a game or not is a surprise, then so is how much they will be paid for working at the tournament.Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic appAlthough they receive a base salary, and then match fees which increase as the World Cup progresses, the referees do not know what the initial payment will be until afterwards.Before Collina reveals the appointments for Germany-Ivory Coast, Ecuador-Curacao, Netherlands-Sweden and Tunisia-Japan, though, there is time to aim a quick joke at Michael Oliver’s expense after he stayed up very late to watch a mate play.The Premier League referee, sitting a couple of rows in front of The Athletic, takes it well and laughs it off. Collina is then straight to the point. He reels off the appointments, which include Oliver, who had to pull out of his first assigned match with a small muscle injury, and fellow Premier League officials Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring. They were handed Saturday’s fixture between the Dutch and Swedes in Houston.And, while there is competition to be assigned matches, there are also moments of camaraderie. When the appointment for the opening game of the tournament is made, one match official told The Athletic the whole group chants the name of the referee to get the nod, to the tune of Seven Nation Army: “Ohhh Wilton Sampaio!”The day’s final announcement from Collina comes with a special presentation, as Romania’s Istvan Kovacs is appointed to the Tunisia-Japan match, which will be the 1,000th World Cup finals fixture since the inaugural edition began in 1930.Collina holds up the landmark shirt (Dan Sheldon/The Athletic)Collina then unfurls a shirt from a plastic bag, and notices — he retired as a ref in 2005 and is now 66 years old, but still doesn’t miss anything — Kovacs reacts to his name being on the back of it before the Italian can say he has been selected. As he holds it up, there is a collective ‘Wow’ in the room, before Kovacs goes up to collect it to a round of applause and plenty of pats on the back.But no sooner had they sat down than the referees are up again. They shuffle out of the room and head to one of three coaches waiting outside the hotel, where they will be transported — accompanied by a police escort — to Miami Dade College, their training base around 30 minutes away.As the referees file out of their coaches, some head straight to the pitch while others take advantage of a nearby restroom. In one of the day’s more surreal scenes, Kovacs was applauded out of his trip to the toilet by colleagues who were still happy for him receiving the 1,000th game.The officials have been making this daily trip to Miami Dade since the beginning of the month, with a ‘Referee Cup’ being created to help them prepare for the World Cup. Clubs from the amateur United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) were invited to compete against each other in a tournament between June 2 and 14, with the games being refereed by the World Cup officials.Still yet to reach the hottest part of the day and fresh off the bus, Oliver, perched on a cooling box full of ice and water, is covering himself in sunblock before joining a group of other referees to begin warming up. (Dan Sheldon/The Athletic)The training centre is overseen by Javier Santos, himself a former match official, and there are three pitches, all of which serve a specific purpose. On one side, the referees who have returned from a match are going through a recovery session to the sound of Swann Layke’s Silhouettes.Alongside them are other officials going through a series of functional exercises, including weighted step-ups and mobility exercises.