A few days ago, the International Football Federation (FIFA) announced the list of 36 names that will participate as the chief referees for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar. For the first time in history, there was a place for women in it, and three representatives of the fair sex at once will perform the main functions of impartiality and compliance with the rules on the field.

Unfortunately, there was no room for Ukrainian Katherine Monzul in the selection cohort. But which of the female referees still deserved the right to work on the field at the World Championships in Qatar?

Stephanie FRAPPAR

FIFA referee since 2011
Age: 38 years old
Citizenship: France

38-year-old Stephanie Frappart, a native of the French municipality of Le Plessis-Bouchard, has already made a serious mark on men’s football. She was the first female referee to work in the main draw match of the UEFA Champions League. Interestingly, this happened in 2020 at a match in which the Ukrainian team – Juventus – Dynamo took part. Then Turintsy beat Kyivans with a score of 3:0 without a hitch, and Frappar was shown three yellow cards, two of which were for Dynamo players Nikolay Shaparenko and Ilya Zabarny.

In one of his recent interviews with French publications, Frappart made it clear that he is perhaps the only referee in his country, among 1000 other French football referees, who has survived 100% thanks to this profession.

Frappart began refereeing at the French Ligue 2 level in 2014 and began appearing in service matches of the elite Ligue 1 five years later. At the same time, it is noteworthy that in 2019 Stephanie was appointed as the chief referee. In the UEFA Super Cup match between Liverpool and Chelsea, which ended in a 2-2 draw in regular time, the Reds took the cup in penalty shootouts.

In total, Frappart has played in several prestigious tournaments so far: Champions League (1 game), World Cup Qualifiers (2), UEFA Super Cup (1), Europa League (4), Conference League (1), League of Nations (1 ), France Ligue 1 (45).

Yoshimi YAMASITA

FIFA referee since 2015
Age: 36 years old
Nationality: Japan

Japanese 36-year-old Yoshimi Yamashita is no less iconic to Asian professional men’s soccer than European Stephanie Frappart. The thing is, it was Yamashita who became the first female referee to work in Asia’s most prestigious club tournament, the AFC Champions League. This game took place on April 21 this year, where Australian “Melbourne City” beat South Korean “Chonnam Dragons” 2:1. Interestingly, like Frappar in the UEFA Champions League, Yamashita “limited himself to three yellow cards” in his debut at this level.

Overall, in Asia, Yamashita is referred to as one of the most progressive football referees on the continent and is often set as an example even for men. He is a role model not only in terms of the pace of career advancement, but also as a referee. At the same time, Yoshimi, like Frappar, cannot be called an overly harsh referee. He prefers verbal conversations with players to instant penalties in the form of cards. Therefore, currently, in 27 games at the highest level, Yamashita has given players only 1 direct red card, 55 yellow.

Of course, for Yamashita the inclusion of the last part of the 2022 World Cup in the number of referees to officiate his matches is an improvement and one should not expect his appearance in too many hot and important matches. However, the fact that a Japanese woman was present in a tournament of this level speaks volumes of her reliance not only on the Japanese arbitration school but also on her personal professional growth in recent years.

Salima MUKANSANGA

FIFA referee since 2019
Age: 33
Citizenship: Rwanda

It is known that 33-year-old Rwandan representative Salima Mukansanga has been a referee since 2012. At the women’s level, she made fairly rapid progress, which allowed her to serve the fair sex at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, the World Cup in France in 2019, the African Cup of Nations and the CAF Champions League. However, Mukansangu has recently started to be attractive to serve the fights of men’s teams.

On 18 January, Salima became the first African referee to serve in the men’s Africa Cup of Nations match. In the match between Zimbabwe and Guinea (2:1), Mukansanga showed 6 yellow cards to the players. As such, this woman has not become less iconic for professional men’s football on her continent than Frappar in Europe or Yamashita in Asia, and therefore the growing interest in her from FIFA is not surprising.

note It is possible that Ukrainian Kateryna Monzul, who was previously appointed by UEFA in the final part of the 2022 European Championship, along with 12 other referees, is also on the list, but at least two important factors played against our compatriot. once. The first has to do with Monzul’s inability to maintain a high level of regular training; that was the “number” in the UPL where Katerina was so highly cited. The second is purely geographical. Even a cursory analysis of FIFA’s decision on female referees for the 2022 World Cup shows the organization’s desire to balance the representation of all continents as much as possible so as not to offend anyone. Suffice it to emphasize that in addition to the three female referees who will serve as chiefs in Qatar, three representatives of the fair sex with the status of assistants will go there – these are Neuza Beck from Brazil, Catherine Nesbitt from the USA and Karen Medina from Mexico. Such a geographical tolerance, no matter what anyone says.