The 2022 World Cup will include female referees for the first time at a major men’s international tournament.
Three female referees have been named on Fifa’s official list of 36 referees for the tournament in Qatar. The Qatar World Cup 2022 takes place from November 21 to December 18.
Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda, Stephanie Frappart from France, and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan are the three selected female referees.
The selected match officials will participate in several seminars this summer, 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.
Who is referee Mukansanga?
Born in 1998, Mukansanga is an international football referee who hails from Rwanda.
Mukansanga became the first woman to referee a match at the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year.
According to Rwanda’s New Times, Mukansanga, who was raised in Rusizi District, West Province, has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and midwifery attained from the University of Gitwe, located in Rwanda’s South Province, Ruhango District.
Her aspiration while in school was to become a basketball player, but it was never to be because she lacked a lot of basic needs, including basketball facilities.
However, she turned her focus to football, and during her final year at St Vincent de Paul Musanze Secondary School, she officiated in a school tournament final game and it is here that her road to football refereeing started.