It has taken 92 years, 942 matches, and a seismic shift in football’s attitudes to women, but on Thursday night an overdue slice of World Cup history will finally be made with a sharp parp of the referee’s whistle before Germany’s group game against Costa Rica.
At that moment, Stéphanie Frappart, a 38-year-old from France, will become the first woman to take charge of a men’s match at the tournament finals. In a World Cup suffused with rancour and controversy it is an undisputed sign of progress.
