Ishita Godinho has even more reason to be thrilled as an all-female team of officials takes the field today (December 1, 2022) to call the shots in the Group E game between Germany and Costa Rica at the Al Bayt Stadium in Doha. If Ishita Godinho was thrilled when Stephanie Frappart of France officiated in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Group C game between Mexico and Poland on November 22, she has even more reason to be thrilled now.
Godinho, senior manager for the development of women’s football at ISL team FC Goa, declares that “this is a historic occasion.”
Because of the constant provocations and intense scrutiny from players, coaches, and spectators throughout the game, refereeing is already a highly difficult job. Godinho, who is also the lead for impact and communication for the Force Goa Foundation, adds that because she is a woman, the difficulty is greater and calls for her to be even more determined and concentrated in order to block out the distractions and do the task successfully.
FIFA and the Qatar 2022 organizing committee for the ongoing World Cup of football have been in the news for the wrong reasons: human rights violations, the host country’s stance against homosexuality, a lack of accommodations for fans who have been asked to stay on cruise ships and take match-day shuttles from Dubai, and the most recent gag order prohibiting teams from wearing the rainbow-colored One Love armbands in support of the LGBTQ+ community, which led to the Germans posing for a photo in support of the LGBTQ+ But the appointment of six female referees to officiate the games is one area where Qatar has an advantage over earlier organizers and hosts.Three of the 36 referees selected for the World Cup in Qatar are female, as are three of the 69 assistant referees working the event.
Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda, Stephanie Frappart of France, and Yamashita Yoshimi of Japan are the three referees. Neuza Back from Brazil, Kathryn Nesbitt from the United States, and Karen Daz Medina from Mexico are the three assistant referees. There are 24 more video match officials, but as of now, none of them are female.
The officials chosen for the competition have a track record that has been established, and they were chosen through a lengthy selection process that spanned years and evaluated their performances in a variety of tournaments, including FIFA’s own junior and senior tournaments as well as other international, national, and FIFA matches.
France’s Frappart will officiate a pivotal match between four-time World Cup champions Germany and Costa Rica at the Al Bayt stadium to determine who advances from Group E, which also includes Japan and Spain. Back and Medina will serve as assistant referees for Frappart on either side of the field during the contest. This will be the first time ever that an all-female squad of officials will be on the field for a men’s World Cup match.To have any chance of moving on to the knockout rounds, Germany must win.
Know the first female FIFA men’s World Cup officials:
Stephanie Frappart: a 38-year-old Frenchwoman, is the six female officials’ most recognizable face to the Champions League-watching Indian viewers.She is also without a doubt the most recognizable female referee in existence right now.2019’s FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France was overseen by Frappart.She was the first woman to serve as the game’s referee in a men’s Champions League match in 2020, and in 2022, she oversaw the Coupe de France finals.Since 2019, she has won three years in a row the title of “World’s Best Woman Referee.”
Salima Mukansanga: Mukansanga has been a FIFA referee since 2012 and is from Rwanda. Before being selected to referee the World Cup in Qatar, he presided over the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and the 2020 Africa Cup of Nations.
Yamashita Yoshimi: A whistler for the 2019 women’s World Cup in France, the Japanese woman is now doing the same for the men’s World Cup in Qatar. The 36-year-old was at the Tokyo Olympics just like Mukansanga. Additionally, she has officiated matches in the J1 League of Japan and the AFC Championships League.
Kathryn Nesbitt: a 34-year-old American, was the first woman to receive the Major League Soccer Assistant Referee of the Year title in 2020. Nesbitt left her position as an assistant professor at an American institution to devote herself fully to assistant refereeing, and as a result of her constant success—including becoming the first woman to handle the channel in an MLS Cup final—she has been selected for the tournament in Qatar.
Neuza Back: In addition to serving as an assistant referee in Brazil’s top league, 38, has also officiated games in the Copa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores, the Fifa Club World Cup semifinal, and the women’s Copa Libertadores.
Karen Dáz Medina: a Mexican assistant referee, claims that she is in love with the game more and more every day as a result of her work. She received her FIFA assistant referee certification in 2017 and has since amassed an outstanding list of matches, including the 2020 Concacaf tournament, the 2020 women’s Olympic qualification round, and age group competitions for both sexes.
Careers in football
According to Michel Castanha, a football player for FC Gokulam and India, seeing women match referees refereeing games at the biggest men’s event in international football is inspiring for females to participate in any sport.
“It offers girls all throughout the world encouragement that they can succeed in sports. Six women in Qatar today inspire females everywhere to aspire to be like them, Castanha continues.
Godinho tells out that since their compensation is still low, many female football players in India work as coaches and referees. Castanha loves the game too much to not play it, thus she has lived in that reality since she was 19 years old. She has officiated local football matches and age group tournaments in Goa. She has also trained kids and teenagers to make a living since the football associations provided very little financial assistance.
Women officials are more common in sports like tennis, where they frequently officiate Grand Slam matches, including the men’s finals, while they are less frequent in men’s international football competitions. Castanha claims that the main reason six women officials in Qatar are generating headlines is because “women doing something in a men’s game is not very prevalent yet” based on her experience as both a player and a referee.
What kind of response are the players likely to have when women handle the whistle? Castanha asserts, “To players, it makes no difference. It makes no difference what gender the official is. Officials of both sexes do the same duties. The referees’ performance is the only thing that the players are interested in. Players merely desire consistency and just judgments. The audience and outsiders have a stronger view on this than the players, in my opinion.
