Stephanie Frappart is set to make history on Thursday evening as the first female to referee a men's World Cup game when Germany take on Costa Rica.
The 38-year-old has been a FIFA -listed referee since 2009 and has progressed through the leagues in her native France, where she started in the third division, before moving up to Ligue 1 in 2019. She took charge of her first game between Amiens and Strasbourg and has since become one of the best officials in France.
In December 2020, Frappart became the first woman to officiate a Champions League game when Juventus played host to Dynamo Kyiv. Later that year, she refereed the quarter-final clash between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, with Frappart also becoming the first female to officiate a World Cup qualifier in March 2021.
A record-breaker, Frappart is set to record her biggest achievement to date when she is the woman in the middle for Germany's must-win game against Costa Rica at the Al Bayt Stadium on Thursday. FIFA has also selected two women as assistants to Frappart, with Neuza Back of Brazil and Mexico's Karen Diaz Medina to complete the World Cup's first all-female on-field refereeing team.
Kathryn Nesbitt of the United States will also be working as the offside specialist in the VAR team. Frappart has worked as a fourth official at the Middle Eastern tournament and previously took charge of a handful of matches at the Women's Euros in the summer, while she was part of the team which officiated the final between the Lionesses and Germany.
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It is poised to be a nervy encounter in Doha, with Germany needing to win to stand any chance of qualifying for the last 16. They will also have a keen eye on the other group game, which sees Japan take on Spain. Germany are bottom of Group E, whereas every other team has earned a victory thus far, and Flick's men need Spain to do them a favour in Al Rayyan.
After his side's draw against Spain, the Germany manager said: "We knew what it was all about and what was at stake. We saw a Spanish team that knows how to play. At the end we had a very good chance but unfortunately we didn’t hit the back of the net.
"Things start to develop when you start to win so maybe this will give us a boost to give us the self-confidence to score goals. We know that this was just the first step and in the next match against Costa Rica we want to create the conditions so that we can go through to the round of 16."
