FIFA has announced the selection of referees for next winter’s World Cup. For the first time in football history, women are included: six to be exact. There is again no trace of Belgian referees on the list.
36 referees, 69 linesmen and 24 video refs received the happy news today that they have been selected to lead the World Cup in Qatar.
Among them are three female chief referees: the French Stéphanie Frappart, the Rwandan Salima Mukansanga and the Japanese Yoshimi Yamashita. Three female linesmen are also allowed to participate.
Referee committee chairman Pierluigi Collina was delighted to announce the news. “We are very happy that we can select female referees for the first time in history. This way we emphasize that quality counts for us and not someone’s gender,” he said.
Our own country again has no representation at the World Cup referees. It has been 2010 since a Belgian ref whistled at a World Cup. Frank De Bleeckere then led three games in South Africa.
