Qatar 2022: Women referees at the FIFA World Cup? The chosen ones who will be the first in history

Qatar 2022 could well be dubbed the World Cup of firsts. There are several events that have never happened before in the history of this tournament that will take place in this edition. FIFA decided that history had to be made and, even before the opening match, it is already doing so.

To begin with, the FIFA World Cup had been played in Asia on only one previous occasion. Precisely 20 years ago, when history was also made when Korea and Japan were the first Asian countries to jointly organize this tournament. Well, the Cup returns to Asia but to an area where it had never been before, the Middle East.

Also, in 21 previous editions over its 92-year history, the FIFA World Cup was the quintessential summer tournament, always held in May, June or July. Qatar 2022, due to climate issues, will be held from November 20 to December 18. And as if this were not enough, another unprecedented fact has just been announced: there will be women referees.

World refereeing history: the first female match officials in FIFA World Cup history

FIFA announced the referees in charge of dispensing justice in Qatar 2022. A total of 129 match officials will participate in the upcoming World Cup. They are divided into 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials. Among them there is a very special group because for the first time in history women were included.

There are 3 female referees and 3 female assistant referees who will make history. They come from France, Rwanda, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and the United States. This is not new, as for the World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifiers, the first match to be refereed by a woman took place, the match won by the Netherlands 2-0 against Latvia in Amsterdam in November 2021.

The chosen one who had that honor was also the first woman to referee a UEFA Champions League match, Juventus 3-0 Dynamo Kiev, played in Turin in December 2020. It is the 38-year-old Frenchwoman Stéphanie Frappart, who is an accumulator of records: she was the first woman to referee in Ligue 1 (Amiens vs Strasbourg) and in a European Club international match (Liverpool vs Chelsea UEFA Supercup 2019).