Stephanie Frappart, Salima Mukansanga and Yoshimi Yamashita pave the way for women referees as they head to Qatar for the the 2022 Men’s FIFA World Cup.
The ladies are amongst 129 officials that have been selected for World Cup duty and are the first-ever female officials have been named for a men’s World Cup
Frappart, who hails from France, has already become the first female referee who officiated matches in the men’s Champions League and World Cup qualifiers; she also took charge of the Women’s World Cup final in 2019.
Mukansanga, who hails from Rwanda, has been making ground-breaking moves in Africa, by becoming the first female to referee a match in the African Cup of Nations earlier this year in Cameroon.
While, Japan’s Yamashita also made her mark when she refereed a match in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League earlier this year.
Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee Pierluigi Collina said, “This concludes a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees as FIFA men’s junior and senior tournaments. In this way, we clearly emphasise that it is quality that counts for us and not gender.”
He further went on to say, “I would hope that in the future, the selection of elite women’s match officials for important men’s competitions will 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, Mukansanga and Yamashita aren’t the only female’s officials who will be involved in the tournament in Qatar, Neuza Back, Kathryn Nesbitt and Diaz Medina were all selected as assistant referees.
Photo 1 Caption: Salima Mukansanga, the first woman to referee an African Cup of Nation match tossing the coin before the Zimbabwe vs Guinea match. Photo: Salima Mukansanga (Instagram)
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