The 22nd Football World Cup starts on Sunday. As is the case for seven editions now, 64 games will be played. They will be led by the 36 central referees selected by FIFA. Among them are three women and six African referees.
In addition to the 36 central arbitrators there will also be 69 assistant referees and 24 Var referees. But the particularity of this edition is the presence of six women, which are among the 129 referees selected.
The French Stéphanie FRAPPART (38 years old) is the most experienced of the Six for having directed the final of the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Considered one of the best referees in Ligue 1, she also has the 2019 European Supercoupe (Liverpool-Michelsea) and several Champions League matches as well as a Cup of France (2022).
Rwandan Salima Mukansanga (34) is no less lotie. She has officiated in numerous international women’s competitions (CAN 2016 and 2022 including the final, OJ 2020 and 2019 World Cup). Last January, she became the first woman to lead a Can men’s match: Zimbabwe-Guinea (2-1).
The Japanese Yoshimi Yamashita (36), also presents at the 2019 Women’s World Cup, is the first woman to have managed a match of the AFC Cup (in 2019, male competition open to the clubs of the countries judged “in development”) and, above all, to an officer in Japanese D1 since 2021.
List of referees
AFRICA
Bakary Gassama (Gambia, 43)
Mustapha Ghorbal (Algeria, 37)
Victor Gomes (South Africa, 39 years old)
Maguette N’Diaye (Senegal, 36 years old)
Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda, 34)
Janny Sikazwe (Zambia, 43)
EUROPE
Daniele Orsato (Italy, 46 years old)
Stéphanie FRAPPART (France, 38 years old)
István Kovács (Romania, 38 years old)
Szymon Marciniak (Poland, 41 years old)
Danny Makkelie (Netherlands, 39 years old)
Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain, 45)
Michael Oliver (England, 37 years old)
Daniel Siebert (Germany, 38 years old)
Anthony Taylor (England, 44)
Clément Turpin (France, 40 years old)
Slavko Vincic (Slovenia, 43 years old)
SOUTH AMERICA
Raphael Claus (Brazil, 43 years old)
Andrés Matias Cabrera (Uruguay, 34 years old)
Fernando Rapallini (Argentina, 44)
Wilton Sampaio (Brazil, 40)
Facundo Tello (Argentina, 40 years old)
Jesus Valenzuela (Venezuela, 38 years old)
Kevin Ortega (Peru, 30)
Concacaf
Ivan Barton (Salvador, 31 years old)
Ismail Elfath (USA, 40)
Mario Escobar (Guatemala, 36 years old)
Said Martinez (Honduras, 31 years old)
César Arturo Ramos (Mexico, 38 years old)
ASIA
Abdulrahman Al Jassim (Qatar, 35)
Alireza Faghani (Iran, 44 years old)
Ning MA (China, 43 years old)
Mohammed Abdulla (Emirates at, 44 years old)
Yoshimi Yamashita (Japan, 36 years old)
OCEANIA
Chris Beath (Australia, 37)
Matthew CONGER (New -Zealand, 44 years old)
