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Stéphanie Frappart: »We have made great progress«
Photo:
HANNAH MCKAY / REUTERS
French referee Stéphanie Frappart will officiate the third German group game at the World Cup in Qatar against Costa Rica on Thursday (from 8 p.m. in the SPIEGEL live ticker).
The 38-year-old will be the first referee in the history of the men's World Cup to officiate a game.
In Qatar, Frappart was preferred to Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda) and Yoshimi Yamashita (Japan).
Yamashita is the fourth official in Thursday's Canada-Morocco game.
Long wait for action
Fifa chief referee Pierluigi Collina emphasized in the run-up to the tournament that the nomination of the female trio was "proof that quality and not gender counts": "They deserve to be there because they consistently perform very well. «
However, by halfway through the tournament, no woman had been nominated to be a referee.
28 of the 33 male referees have already been deployed, several even twice.
Frappart feels ready for their commitment.
"We've made great strides in recent years," she said ahead of the World Cup.
And the 38-year-old is well known on the big stage.
She was the first woman to officiate a French Ligue 1 game, a Champions League game and a World Cup qualifier.
svs/sid/dpa