Amaury Majors has big plans in store after becoming the first referee in 20 years to earn a Fifa badge.

The 24-year-old firefighter hopes to become only the second Bermudian to officiate at the World Cup after Keith Dunstan, who ran the line in three matches at the 1970 tournament in Mexico.

“Every referee’s dream is to go to the World Cup and that’s my long-term goal,” Majors told The Royal Gazette.

“But my short-term goal is to start off small and go to a Youth World Cup and maybe a Gold Cup, which is our big regional tournament.”

Majors, who also holds a Concacaf referee badge, was named in the 2025 Fifa Referee List this month and is delighted to have taken a huge step in his career.

“It definitely feels good and it’s what I have been working for over these past few years,” Majors said.

“It was a long, hard process and the biggest factor in helping me to realise the dream is Crenstant Williams [Bermuda Football Association second vice-president and chairman of the referees committee].

“He pushed the idea and kept me in communication with people already on the Fifa list and those working towards it like me. He also contacted instructors to help me get experience and everything I need in order to get on the list.

“There are always challenges and the most challenging part was self-discipline; keeping my eyes on the goal and making sure that I do what I needed to do day in and day out and being consistent about it.

“I definitely feel that I have accomplished something but it hasn’t fully set in yet and I am also in the mindset that the job is not done. I have the badge but I aspire to do things with it and go to different tournaments.”

Majors, the first local in two decades to earn a Fifa referee badge after Lyndon Raynor, is now scheduled to attend the new Fifa Referee winter seminar in Costa Rica this month and has also been invited to officiate in the Concacaf Under-17 World Cup qualifiers next month.

Williams, Majors’ mentor, is proud to see another Bermudian attain the highest status in world football.

“Amaury is going to be our first Fifa referee in 20 years and the badge is on its way so we should be having our ceremony soon,” he said.

“With that, we now have three Fifa assistant referees and one referee to represent Bermuda internationally.

“We always just had one assistant referee but now we have three; one female and two males in Natasha Trott, Stefan Maybury and Quinton Hayward, as well as Amaury Majors on the referee list.

Majors initially had no intention of getting involved in match officiating but was inspired while attending the Bermuda Football Association’s referee assistant programme in 2015.

“I love the game of football and in 2015 myself and my friend got invited to the referee assistant programme, which used to bring in Fifa instructors from other Concacaf countries to teach the laws of the game and the fitness aspect,” Majors said.

“I enjoyed that course and started in youth games. I never had any ambitions to be a referee before then and got interested when I got there. I had no idea of what refereeing entailed at that point.”

Majors concedes that being a referee can be challenging at times, with criticism and insults part of the job.

“Everyone is going to have a different perspective but as the referee you have the power and are covered by the laws of the game, so I try not to take on any outside perspective,” he said.

“I try to explain my point of view; what I saw, what happened, and if after that they still don’t agree then that’s their opinion and I go along with mine.

“It’s hard, definitely, but at the end of the day the job has got to get done, and I am not going to let criticism and others stop me from what I want to achieve and having a good game.”