Female referees to officiate men’s World Cup for 1st time
GENEVA — Female referees will make World Cup history this year by working games at a major men’s tournament for the first time in Qatar.
Three female referees and three female assistant referees were announced Thursday by FIFA among 129 officials selected for World Cup duty, including one man who caused controversy when refereeing a chaotic African Cup of Nations game in January while suffering with heatstroke.
French referee Stéphanie Frappart already worked men’s games in World Cup qualifying and the Champions League, after handling the 2019 Women’s World Cup final. She also refereed the final of the men’s French Cup this month.
“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide,” said FIFA Referees Committee chairman Pierluigi Collina, who worked the 2002 World Cup final. “In this way, we clearly emphasize that it is quality that counts for us and not gender.”
Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan are also on the list of 36 referees preparing for the 64 games at the tournament, which will be played from Nov. 21-Dec. 18.
The 69 assistant referees include Neuza Back of Brazil, Karen Díaz Medina of Mexico and Kathryn Nesbitt of the United States.
“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,” Collina said.
Among the male referees is Janny Sikazwe of Zambia, who blew the final whistle at an African Cup group match after 85 minutes and again 13 seconds before the 90 minutes were complete, with Mali leading Tunisia 1-0.
About 30 minutes after the match, officials ordered the teams back on the field to restart play but Tunisia refused. The result was later ratified by the Confederation of African Football despite an official protest by Tunisia.
The match was played in heat and humidity in Cameroon, and Sikazwe later explained he started to become confused in the intense conditions.
Sikazwe will be working at his second World Cup after handling two group games at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
The extreme heat in Qatar led FIFA to decide in 2015 to move the tournament to the cooler months in the Gulf emirate.
FIFA has picked 24 men to work on video reviews. The VAR system made its debut in 2018.
FIFA said 50 referee-and-assistant trios began preparing in 2019 for World Cup duty, with the project affected by limits on international travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two referees were picked from each of Argentina, Brazil, England and France.
All the officials — who were not allocated into specific teams of three — face future technical, physical and medical assessments this year, FIFA said.
Ismail Elfath of US picked among 36 World Cup referees
Ismail Elfath is the lone American among 36 referees selected by FIFA on Thursday for this year’s World Cup.
The 40-year-old was born in Morocco, moved to Austin, Texas, at age 18 in 2001 to attend at the University of Texas and refereed his first Major League Soccer match in 2012. Elfath worked a semifinal of the 2019 Club World Cup, three games at last year’s Olympics and at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
In August 2016, he was the referee for the first on-field test of the Video Assistant Referee during a game between New York Red Bulls II and Orlando City B in the third tier USL League Championship.
David Socha was the first American to referee a World Cup match, whistling one game in 1982 and 1986. Vincent Mauro worked in 1990 and Arturo Angeles followed in 1994.
Esse Baharmast became the first awarded two games at one tournament, in 1998, and Brian Hall was in charge of two matches in 2002. There were no American referees on the field during the 2006 and 2010 tournaments.
Mark Geiger worked the 2014 World Cup and became the first American to referee a knockout stage match, France’s 2-0 win over Nigeria. Geiger and Jair Marrufo worked the 2018 tournament,
Other Americans selected as match officials for this year’s World Cup were: Kyle Atkins of Kansas City, Missouri, Katy Nesbitt of Philadelpha, and Corey Parker of Edinboro, Pennsylvania, as assistant referees; and Armando Villarreal of San Antonio, Texas, as a video assistant referee.