The International Football Association (FIFA) announced Thursday that Stephanie Frappart of France and Rwanda’s Salema Mukansanga and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan, in a historic precedent, were selected among 36 referees to manage the World Cup in Qatar.
“This long process that began several years ago concludes with the deployment of female referees to the FIFA Men’s Junior and Senior Championships,” said Pierluigi Collina, President of the FIFA Referees Committee.
In this way, we clearly affirm that it is quality that matters, not gender. I hope that in the future the selection of the women’s elite match officials for the important men’s competitions will be seen as normal and no longer exciting. They deserve to be in the FIFA World Cup because they consistently perform at a really high level, and that is the important factor for us.”
congratulations for:
Yamashita Yoshimi 🇯🇵
Stephanie Frappart 🇫🇷
Salima Mukansanga 🇷The first three referees to be selected for the FIFA Men’s World Cup 👏 pic.twitter.com/tnCS3zImSd
– FIFA World Cup (FIFAWorldCup) May 19, 2022
News Pac of Brazil, Karen Diaz Medina of Mexico and Katherine Nisbet of the United States have been selected among the group of assistants who will run the line and the flag for offside in the tournament. In total, FIFA chose 69 referees for the match.
