The world football governing body FIFA has released the full list of referees ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with a historical change.
On Thursday, May 19, 2022, FIFA announced the full list of referees for the Qatar 2022 world cup tournament but with an unexpected change that has been termed historical in the game of football.
The full list of referees released saw the addition of 6 female match officials which is the first time this is happening in the world of football.
The FIFA Referees Committee chairman Pierluigi Collina stated:
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
See the full list of referees and match officials here.
Kathryn Nesbitt today became one of six female officials to make history, being appointed to the #WorldCup. For the first time. Ever.
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) May 19, 2022
Quite a journey for a "kid who started as a summer job" who up to two weeks before the 2019 @FIFAWWC, was a professor of chemistry.
Her story.
