Qatar World Cup to feature female referees for first time in history

Female referees are set to officiate at the men’s World Cup for the first time in its 92-year history.

Three women have been listed among the 36 officials selected by FIFA to take charge of the matches in Qatar later this year.

France’s Stéphanie Frappart, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda, and Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita will become the first women to officiate at a men’s international tournament.

These trailblazers have been leading the way for female football officials for several years now, with all three already holding their own personal piece of history.

Frappart rose into the spotlight in 2019 after becoming the first woman to officiate a major men’s European match, as well as a Ligue 1 fixture. In 2020, she became the first female referee to take charge of a men’s Champions League match and last year, she officiated a men’s World Cup qualifier, once again marking herself down as the first woman to do so.

Frappart has since been in charge of other Ligue 1 games and she is the three-time consecutive winner of theIFFHS World’s Best Woman Referee award.

Mukansanga has an impressive officiating portfolio, having refereed at the Women’s World Cup and the Olympics, amongst other competitions.

The Rwandan marked a huge milestone earlier this year when she became the first woman to officiate at the men’s African Cup of Nations.

Similarly, Yamashita has also refereed at the Women’s World Cup and the Olympic Games. The Japanese official wrote her own history when she became the first female referee to take charge of an AFC Champions League fixture.

Frappart, Mukansanga, and Yamashita join the likes of Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor on the list of World Cup referees for Qatar.

As well as the history-making trio, three