Fifa has announced that female referees will officiate at a men’s World Cup for the first time, along with three female assistant referees. Stéphanie Frappart of France, Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda, and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan have been added to the list of 36 referees who will compete in Qatar in November and December, marking a significant step forward for female equality in football.
Neuza Back from Brazil, Karen Dáz Medina from Mexico, and Kathryn Nesbitt from the United States will join the trio as part of the 69 assistant referees.
According to Fifa’s head of refereeing, Pierluigi Collina, the selection of officials was made without consideration to gender. Collina said.
Pierluigi Collina, the head of refereeing for Fifa, claims that gender was not taken into account when choosing the officials.
According to Collina, “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.”
Frappart is a pioneer in the men’s games and one of the top officials in women’s football.
As the first female official of a French Ligue 1 game in 2019, she also officiated the Women’s World Cup Final and the men’s Uefa Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea. She became the first woman to officiate a men’s Champions League match the following year and a men’s World Cup qualifier in 2021.
36 year old Yamashita also achieved success in Asian events. In May of last year, she became the first woman to officiate a J1 League game. This year, she has also officiated matches in the Women’s Asian Cup and the Asian Champions League. Mukansanga has served as a leading referee for the CAF Women’s Champions League, the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations, and the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
Author-Roberta Appiah
