By Victor Kanayo
World football governing body, Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), has named 33 referees, 55 assistant referees and 19 Video Match Officials (VMO) for the upcoming Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand 2023.
This is contained in a statement on its website.
Incidentally, no Nigerian referee made the list.
However, four African referees are among those selected.
It said the team were chosen in close cooperation with the six confederations, based on the officials’ quality and their performances delivered at FIFA tournaments and other international and domestic competitions.
It added that for the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, six female VMOs have also been selected.
”As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected on-field match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide.
”We all remember the very successful FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 in France.
”The high standard of refereeing contributed significantly to that success.
”The aim for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 is to repeat that success and to convince again with excellent referees’ performances,” the statement quoted chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina as saying.
The statement also quoted Kari Seitz, FIFA’s Head of Women Refereeing, saying that the match officials will continue to receive all necessary support from FIFA.
