Football World Cup in Qatar: Fifa nominates three female referees for the first time

Enlarge image

Stephanie Frappart

Photo:

Christophe Ena / AP

For the first time in FIFA history, there are three female referees in the squad for a World Cup.

Stéphanie Frappart from France, who has also refereed in the men's Champions League, has been nominated for the tournament from November 21 to December 18 in Qatar.

Rwanda's Salima Mukansanga and Japan's Yoshimi Yamashita complete the squad.

Daniel Siebert is one of the 36 World Cup referees for the first time.

The 38-year-old already whistled at the European Championship last year and has been a Fifa referee since 2015.

The assistants at the World Cup are Rafael Foltyn and Jan Seidel, and the video assistants are Bastian Dankert and Marco Fritz.

Felix Brych represented the DFB at the past World Cups in Brazil and Russia.

Since 2019, 50 referee trios had prepared for a possible assignment.

For Pierluigi Collina, the nomination of three female referees and three assistants is "the conclusion of a long process that began several years ago with the use of female referees in FIFA youth and senior men's competitions, and proof that the quality and not gender matters."

This was said by the former top Italian referee, who heads the refereeing committee at Fifa.

"I hope that the appointment of elite female referees for important men's competitions will soon no longer be a sensation, but a matter of course."

The tournament in Qatar will be the first World Cup where women are used as referees or assistants.

kra/dpa