Stephanie Frappart will become the first female referee to take charge of a men’s FIFA World Cup game. The French official will take charge of the group stage game between Costa Rica and Germany on December 2. In the process, she will become the first woman to take charge of a World Cup game in the competition’s 92-year history.
Brazil’s Neuza Back and Mexican Karen Diaz Medina are the other women officials who have been designated for the same fixture. It is not Frappart’s first record. In 2021, she became the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup qualifying match, when she took charge of the Netherlands against Latvia.
She became one of three female referees to be selected in the pool for the World Cup in May, along with Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan.