He will be joined for the Group B clash by the other members of his match officials’ trio, fellow Kiwi Jan Hendrik Hintz and Tonga’s Tevita Makasini, who have both been named as assistant referees – more commonly known as linesmen – for the game.
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) will also be represented during the Group C match between Algeria and Slovenia at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.
New Zealand pair Peter O’Leary and Brent Best will act as fourth official and reserve assistant referee respectively.
They will follow in the footsteps of assistant referee Paul Smith, who ran the line for three matches at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan.
Solomon Islands official Matthew Taro, the country’s first referee to ever attend a FIFA World Cup, is also in South Africa but has not been named to take part in any of the opening 16 matches.
Both Oceania trios performed well at FIFA tournaments last year, including appointments for the knock-out stages of the FIFA U-17 and FIFA U-20 World Cups.
Hester, 37, controlled the semi-final between Columbia and Switzerland at the U-17 event in Nigeria last November – the first time a Kiwi ref has taken charge of a world cup semi-final – and is delighted to be stepping up to the elite senior men’s level.
“I was confident we had done everything we could during the selection process and nothing was left in the tank. But I was also aware that only the very best would be selected for FIFA’s biggest stage,” he says.
“It’s a tribute to OFC and New Zealand Football that we’ve been able to get two trios in the final 30. It shows what opportunities are available in refereeing with the right programmes in place.”
Away from the field, Hester has been an officer in the New Zealand Navy since he was a teenager. A lieutenant commander, he works in the logistics field at sea and on shore, and moves between Wellington, Auckland and Waiouru.
He is a former player himself – he competed in New Zealand’s northern region leagues for Waiuku and Navy – and took up refereeing in 2001 because he wanted to stay involved in the game.
He quickly rose through the ranks and, after just two years of refereeing schoolboy football and men’s social games, was promoted to the national league in 2003. He was appointed to the FIFA international list of referees four years later.
He has since been the man in the middle at the South Pacific Games in Samoa, the LA Galaxy exhibition matches in New Zealand and two games at the Beijing Olympics.
Hester and the other OFC representatives shared an audience with FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter last week in a ceremony marking the official start of their duties.
“We were given our FIFA World Cup gold medals and official world cup watches that we will use when we officiate in the competition matches,” Taro says.
They have also joined the other referees in acclimitisation training and sessions with special instructors.