Zurich, May 19 (UNI): Six women match officials have been appointed for the first time in World Cup history as the FIFA Referees Committee announced the list with the names of the selected match officials on Thursday.
FIFA has appointed three women referees and three women assistant referees for the 2022 World Cup, scheduled to take place from November 21 to December 18 in Qatar. The selected female referees are Stephanie Frappart from France, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda, Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan.
Moreover, the female assistant referees are Neuza Back from Brazil, Karen Díaz Medina from Mexico and Kathryn Nesbitt from the USA. As many as 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials (VMOs) have been chosen in close cooperation with the six confederations, based on their quality and the performances delivered at FIFA tournaments as well as at other international and domestic competitions in recent years.
The selected match officials will participate in early summer 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.
“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide. The 2018 World Cup was very successful, partly because of the high standard of refereeing, and we will do our best to be even better in a few months in Qatar,” said the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina.