FEMALE REFEREE TAKES ON ENGLAND GAME
ENGLAND will be refereed by a female official for the first time in Andorra tomorrow night with Kateryna Monzul taking charge of their World Cup qualifier. In an historic occasion, the Ukrainian will be at the helm as Gareth Southgate’s side look to take a step closer to Qatar 2022. Monzul has officiated in the men’s Ukrainian Premier League since 2016 and will be joined by an all-female assistant crew of Maryna Striletska and Svitlana Grushko, also from Ukraine.
France’s Stephanie Frappart — who took charge of the 2019 UEFA Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea — will be the Video Assistant Referee. Monzul took charge of a men’s senior international in November 2020, alongside an all-female assistant crew, for a Nations League game between San Marino and Gibraltar. The 40-year-old has also refereed at Women’s World Cups and European Championships.
Frappart, 37, shot to prominence as the first female official in Ligue 1 in April 2019, before becoming the first woman to officiate a major men’s European match in the Super Cup. She has also refereed both men’s and women’s Champions League games and took charge of a World Cup qualifier between Holland and Latvia in March. Speaking when Monzul and
Frappart were announced as referees last March for the fixtures, Pierluigi Collina, the chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, said: ‘FIFA will continue to champion the development of female refereeing and I’m confident that the appointment of female match officials to men’s games will be absolutely commonplace in the future.’