An exclusively female arbitration team will whistle, for the first time in history , a match in a men’s World Cup.
The The French Stephanie Frappart together with the Brazilian Neuza Back and the Mexican Karen Díaz Medina will direct the match in which the teams of Costa Rica and Germany will meet this Thursday, at the Al Bayt stadium .
Frappart already broke a glass ceiling in Qatar by becoming the first female referee of the tournament, when she was appointed as the fourth referee of the match between Mexico and Poland last Tuesday.
“We know the pressure,” the Frenchwoman told the BBC before the start of the World Cup.
“But we must be calm, focused, concentrated, and not think too much about the media and everything else, just be focused on what is happening in the field”, he added.
The first in everything
Frappart will be the main referee. Photo: Getty Images
The Frenchwoman, by 36 years, has already made history in European football. In 2014 she became the first woman to referee a Super Cup match and in 2014 he did the same in the Champions League.
For his part, Díaz Medina achieved in 2014 the milestone of being the first woman to whistle a second leg match in the final of the Mexican league . This, barely a year after being certified as an assistant referee by the International Federation of Associated Football (FIFA).
However, her career, which spans more than 12 years, It started almost by accident.
“One day, while I was working in a cafeteria at a Little Sports Center, the designated referee did not show up for the game. The league administrator asked me if I wanted to referee the game and I said yes. I liked it, they paid me to do something that I really enjoyed. From that moment on, they assigned me more games each week and with the money earned I was able to pay for the University,” Díaz Medina said in an interview with the North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football Confederation ( Concacaf).
Brazilian Back is not a newcomer in the world of refereeing either and began his long career on the pitch after finishing his studies.
Since 1536 Back has been whistling matches in different competitions in his country and in 2014 he obtained recognition from FIFA, which allowed him to become in 2022 in one of the members of the first shortlist that refereed a match of the men’s Copa Libertadores de América.
The referees speak
It is the first time that the shortlist refereeing will be made up of women in a match of the men’s World Cup. Photo: Getty Images.
To the question of whether he has ever received criticism and comments from players, managers or fans for being a woman, Frappart responded to the BBC:
“Since I started I always received the support of the teams, the clubs and the players. I was always welcome at the stadium, so I feel like another referee on the field. I was always welcome, so I think I’ll be welcome as before.”
Back, meanwhile, admitted her career has not been easy and that she has had to overcome difficult moments. However, although he assured that he had found the recipe to deal with them.
“When I go through a compromising situation, where prejudice is presented in a veiled way, with jokes in bad taste or even looks, I only think that what someone thinks or says about me does not define me”, he commented in a recent interview with the EFE news agency.
The referee, born ago 12 years in the municipality of Saudades, in the state of Santa Catarina, close to the border with Argentina, assured that in professional soccer discrimination against women is increasingly less frequently, but there is still a lot to be done in amateur football.
“Prejudice is more present in amateur football,” he said , while adding: “What we (female referees) need to do is a good job, make the right decisions on the pitch and everything will be fine.”
For your part , Díaz Medina assured that she hopes to become a role model for other girls, by “showing them that dreams come true if you make an effort and love what you do.”
Three other women are among the 36 referees selected by FIFA to take charge of the matches in Qatar.
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