The World Cup in Qatar will have women refereeing for the first time in history. One of them will be the Mexican Karen Díaz Medina

For the first time in history, several women will act as referees in the World Cup of soccer (men) that will be held from November 21 to December 18 in Qatar.

There will be only six, against 123 men, as announced on Thursday by FIFA, which organizes the championship.

Among them is a Mexican, Karen Díaz Medina.

Díaz Medina, 38, was the first woman to participate in refereeing a Mexican League final, in 2020, and had previously participated in a classic match there, Chivas against América.

The others will be the French Stephanie Frappart;

the Rwandan Salima Mukasanga;

and the Japanese Yoshimi Yamashita, who will be among the 36 field referees;

and the Brazilian Neuza Back and the American Kathryn Nesbitt, who will be part, along with the Mexican Díaz Medina, of the body of assistant referees.

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It will be the first time that there will be female referees in a men's World Cup, according to the list of referees announced by FIFA.

"These appointments culminate a long process that began several years ago with the appointment of female referees at FIFA junior and senior men's tournaments," said Italian Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee.

"We will not tire of repeating that

," said Collina, who pointed out that he hopes that "in the future there will be elite referees in major men's competitions, it will be understood as something normal and it will stop being news".

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Frappart, 38 years old and a referee in international matches since 2011, is the most reputable and recognized referee (as Collina was in her day).

After directing the biggest women's tournaments, including World Cup finals, in 2019 she became the first woman to referee the men's Super Cup final (Liverpool-Chelsea) and in 2020 she was the first to direct a Champions League match. (Juventus-Dinamo kyiv)

She was also the first female referee in a European Championship match, as an assistant to Dutchman Danny Makkelie in the Turkey-Italy match that opened the men's tournament.

Mukasanga was the first woman to officiate in an Africa Cup of Nations match this year (Zimbabwe-Guinea) after being the fourth official in the Guinea-Malawi match.

And Yamashita directed the Melbourne City-Jeonnam Dragons in the Asian Champions League in April.

Karen Janett Díaz Medina during the match between Atlético San Luis and Cruz Azul the Guardianes Tournament on August 23, 2020 in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.César Gómez / Jam Media/Getty Images

The Mexican has been an assistant referee for 12 years.

He debuted as a professional in 2009 and in the Mexican league he did so in the Pachuca vs.

León in 2016. Since then he has participated in six tournaments in that country, in addition to refereeing in three international matches.

Originally from Aguascalientes, Díaz Medina is also an agro-industrial engineer.

From the age of 8 she began to play soccer but, years later, when she was working on a fut7 field, a referee was absent one day and she decided to jump in and replace him and that was when her passion was born, according to the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

With information from AP and Efe.