Uruguayan referee Gustavo Tejera, who has officiated at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, works as an insurance broker, running GT Brokers, an advisory firm.
Tejera, born in Montevideo in January 1988, has held FIFA International Referee status since 2018. He debuted in Uruguay's top flight in 2015 and has since officiated at Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers, including the 2025 Liga AUF Uruguaya final between Peñarol and Nacional. At the 2026 World Cup, his assignments included South Korea's group match against Mexico and Australia's Round of 32 tie against Egypt.
According to Transfermarkt data cited during the tournament, he has overseen 344 matches and shown 1,733 yellow cards, an average of just over five per game, making him one of the stricter officials on the FIFA list.
Running an insurance advisory business without the backing of a larger agency means client relationships and renewals fall to Tejera directly, work that continues around a refereeing schedule built on short notice, long-haul travel and weekend fixtures.
Grassroots and semi-professional referees in England are covered through the National Game Insurance Scheme, introduced by the FA in 2012 and delivered through Bluefin Sport, part of Marsh. The scheme provides personal accident and public liability cover to clubs, teams and match officials, and has paid out more than £1.5 million in claims since launch.
Members of the Referees' Association also receive group personal accident and assault cover through Spencer Hayes Group, extending to physiotherapy following injury, support in cases of verbal or physical assault during officiating, and theft of refereeing kit and equipment. The FA made personal accident insurance mandatory across all age groups and formats of grassroots football from the 2017-18 season onward.
That cover exists against a backdrop of rising reported abuse toward match officials.
The FA's Grassroots Disciplinary Review, covering step five and below in men's football and step three and below in the women's game, recorded 1,716 serious offence allegations against match officials in the 2023-24 season, including verbal abuse, threats and physical assault, up 17% from 1,451 the previous year.
Allegations of assault or attempted assault on officials specifically rose from 72 to 95 over the same period. The FA has said such offences occur in around 0.2% of grassroots matches annually, and has introduced measures including trial bodycams, used in more than 4,000 matches last season, and a "Captains Only" protocol restricting who may approach a referee during a game.
With an estimated 28,000 referees officiating grassroots football in England each week, and research suggesting roughly one in seven match officials quit the game annually, citing abuse as a leading factor, assault and injury cover of the kind offered through the Referees' Association and NGIS schemes addresses a risk that officiating bodies are actively working to reduce rather than one that has gone away.
