For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, the FIFA Referees Committee has appointed three women’s referees and three women’s assistant referees to officiate in the upcoming FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
Among the 3 selected referees is Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga who made history earlier this year as she became the first female referee to officiate in the men’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON 2021) hosted by Cameroon.
“We are very happy that with Stéphanie Frappart from France, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan, as well as assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil, Karen Díaz Medina from Mexico and Kathryn Nesbitt from the USA, we have been able to call up female match officials for the first time in the history of a FIFA World Cup”.
Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee
Criteria for selecting female referees
Pierluigi noted that the selection of the female referees forms part of a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees at FIFA men’s junior and senior tournaments. He said in this way, “we clearly emphasize that it is quality that counts for us and not gender”.
Pierluigi Collina added that “I would hope that in the future, the selection of elite women’s match officials for important men’s competitions will be perceived as something normal and no longer as sensational”. Pierluigi further averred that the selected female referees deserve to be at the FIFA World Cup™ because they constantly perform at a really high level, “and that’s the important factor for us”.
The lists, with the names of the selected match officials for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ announced by the FIFA Referees Committee on May 19, 2022, included 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials (VMOs) chosen in close cooperation with the six confederations.
According to the FIFA Referees Committee, the match officials were selected based on their quality and the performances delivered at FIFA tournaments as well as at other international and domestic competitions in recent years.
“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide. The 2018 World Cup was very successful, partly because of the high standard of refereeing, and we will do our best to be even better in a few months in Qatar”.
Pierluigi Collina
Match officials to receive the necessary support from FIFA
Massimo Busacca, FIFA’s Director of Refereeing, said FIFA will ensure that the match officials receive all the necessary support before the tournament since their preparation is paramount.
The selected match officials will participate in several seminars (Asunción, Madrid and Doha), reviewing and analyzing video clips of real match situations, and taking part in practical training sessions with players, which will be filmed to enable participants to receive instant feedback from the instructors.
“The key focuses of the preparation remain protecting players and the image of the game, consistency, uniformity, reading the game from a technical and tactical perspective and understanding a variety of player and team mentalities. We can’t eliminate all mistakes, but we will do everything we can to reduce them”.
Massimo Busacca
The VAR system was implemented for the first time ever at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ and four years later, a team of 24 video match officials (VMOs) will operate in Qatar, ready to provide their team-mates on the pitch with technological support, if needed.
Due to the very limited number of FIFA member associations having implemented the VAR system at the time, VMOs for Russia 2018 were mainly selected from Europe and South America.
However, currently, the VAR system is used in all major competitions worldwide and VMOs from Asia, Africa, as well as Central and North America will also participate in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
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