FIFA has announced a list of 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 match officials for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Among them are six women – three referees and three assistant referees – and this is the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup that the FIFA Referees Committee has appointed women.
“We are very happy that with Stéphanie Frappart from France, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan, as well as assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil, Karen Díaz Medina from Mexico and Kathryn Nesbitt from the USA, we have been able to call up female match officials for the first time in the history of a FIFA World Cup,” said Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee speaking to FIFA.com.
“This concludes a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees at FIFA men’s junior and senior tournaments. In this way, we clearly emphasise that it is quality that counts for us and not gender. I would hope that in the future, the selection of elite women’s match officials for important men’s competitions will be perceived as something normal and no longer as sensational. They deserve to be at the FIFA World Cup™ because they constantly perform at a really high level, and that’s the important factor for us.”
Having made the cut for the world’s biggest football showpiece, hard work lies ahead for the selected match officials.
“The selected match officials will participate in several seminars (Asunción, Madrid and Doha), reviewing and analysing video clips of real match situations, and taking part in practical training sessions with players, which will be filmed to enable participants to receive instant feedback from the instructors,” said a FIFA statement.
To get more on the history of women referees, click on the link below from groundhopperguides.com
https://groundhopperguides.com/making-history-female-soccer-referees/
By Matlhomola Morake (additional reporting: FIFA.com)
