Women referees will be seen for the first time in the FIFA World Cup on Friday i.e. December 2. France’s Stéphanie Frapart will officiate as the on-field referee for the Group E match between Germany and Costa Rica. Frapart will be accompanied by two more female referees as assistant referees. She will be joined by Nuija Back and Karen Diaz.

Late on Tuesday FIFA announced the refereeing team for the Germany-Costa Rica match.

Frapart became the first female referee of the French league
Frapart, 38, became a referee in France’s Ligue-1 in 2019. Messi, Neymar and Mbappe play club football for the same league team PSG. Frapart also refereed the final of the Women’s World Cup in 2019. Frapart was on the refereeing panel for the final match of the 2019 UEFA Super Cup, as well as an assistant referee in the 2020 Champions League.

Frapart is from France.

Gender Not Qualification – Fraparte
After being selected in the FIFA World Cup, Frapart said, “I am very happy that I have been selected for the World Cup. Now the selection is not on the basis of gender but on the basis of merit. FIFA is sending a strong message to the world by calling women referees in the World Cup.

Referee of the Year for three consecutive years
Fraparte received the Best Referee of the Year in 2019, 2020 and 2021 from the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).

In 2019, Fraparte was also awarded the title of Best Referee of the Year by the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards.

Germany needs to win to go ahead
Group-E has Spain, Japan, Germany and Costa Rica. Where Spain has secured 4 points with one win and one draw and is at the top of its group. At the same time, Germany is at the last position with just 1 point. Japan is second with 3 points and Costa Rica is third with the same number of points. Japan is ahead of Costa Rica because of better goal difference.

Last week’s draw in the match against Spain has increased the difficulties for Germany to go ahead. They will have to win their next match against Costa Rica by a big margin in any case to go ahead. Also, the German team will pray that Spain defeats Japan.