The Mexican Karen Díaz and the French referee Stéphanie Frappart will make history this December 1 by being the first women to whistle a men’s World Cup match.
Frappart will be the central referee for the match between Costa Rica and Germany in Qatar 2022 at the Al Bayt Stadium. She will be accompanied by the Mexican Karen Díaz and the Brazilian Neuza Back as line judges or flag bearers. The Honduran Said Martínez will be the fourth official.
Who is Stephanie Frappart?
The Frenchwoman is considered the best referee in the world as she has had a solid career in FIFA Women’s World Cups.
In 2020 she made waves in the refereeing world, writing her name in the history books by becoming the first woman to take charge of a men’s Champions League match. A year later, Frappart would lead the way when Atlético Madrid faced Chelsea in a round of 16 second leg in the women’s UCL, FIFA reports.
Before being announced as part of the plans for Qatar, she also refereed the 2022 French Cup final.
Who is the Mexican referee Karen Díaz?
She is originally from Aguascalientes and Agroindustrial Engineering by training. She started refereeing on a 7-a-side soccer field.
Her presentation was in 2008 and she was also the first woman to participate in a Liga MX final as an assistant referee. She has whistled at the Barranquilla 2018 Central American Games and the Concacaf Sub-20 and Sub-17 Pre-World Cups.
“In 2018 he received the FIFA Badge for the first time. Her greatest international achievement, so far, is being the first Mexican woman to participate in a Concacaf Men’s World Cup ”, explains the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) on its arbitration page.
Six female referees
The Qatar 2022 World Cup has 129 referees, 6 of whom are women.
“We will not get tired of repeating that the important thing is quality and not gender. I hope that, in the future, the fact that there are elite women referees in big men’s competitions will be understood as something normal and stop being news. They deserve to be at the World Cup,” Pierluigi Collina, chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, said in May.
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