Stephanie Frappart‘s appointment as match referee for Thursday’s crunch World Cup clash between Germany and Costa Rica is a step forward for women in a “sexist sport“! With Assistant Referee Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz from Mexico, a new chapter in the World Cup will be written.
“This is another step forward. This speaks volumes for this woman, of her commitment, especially in this sport which is a very sexist one. It’s very difficult to reach the point that she has reached, I think it’s good for football and a positive step for football, to show that it’s opening up for everyone.”
“It’s a surprise, you cannot believe it and after two or three minutes, you realize that you are going to the World Cup. It’s amazing, not only for me but also for my family and also for the French referees,” Stephanie Frappart tells CNN Sport.
▶ Who is Stephanie Frappart?
Frappart rose through the ranks of football refereeing in her native France. In 2019, she became the first female referee to take charge of a Ligue 1 match, in August 2019 the first to take charge of a major men’s European match, and in 2020, the first to officiate a men’s UEFA Champions League match…
It can be seen that she is really a very remarkable woman. Frappert and her colleagues are the first female officials to take to the field at a men’s World Cup tournament！
- 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.
- “We are very happy that with Stephanie Frappart from France, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda, and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan, as well as assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil, Karen Díaz Medina from Mexico and Kathryn Nesbitt from the USA, we have been able to call up female match officials for the first time in the history of a FIFA World Cup.”
- “This concludes a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees at FIFA men’s junior and senior tournaments. In this way, we clearly emphasize that it is quality that counts for us and not genders.”
