Soccer referees for FIFA and UEFA, Europe's soccer federation, may speak several languages, but English is generally the default. The same is increasingly true at the Olympics, where French, once the language used by officials, has fallen by the wayside as English has been more widely adopted.

Do soccer refs speak both languages?

FIFA referees are expected to be able to speak English. So if the referee who doesn't speak the language of a team (many international referees speak multiple languages) he will be talking English to them.

How many languages do soccer refs speak?

As a rule, referees will speak to soccer players in English and this is because it is the most common language that is spoken all over Europe. When it comes to international matches, however, there are four main languages that are spoken, English, German, French, and Spanish.