Making history has become something of a pastime for Stephanie Frappart.
After the French official ticked her name into the history books earlier in the tournament when she became the first woman to serve as a fourth official at a World Cup in the goalless draw between Mexico and Poland, Frappart will crank up the stakes that little bit further on Thursday when she leads out the first all-female officiating team at a men’s World Cup for Germany’s all-or-nothing Group E clash with Costa Rica. In the process, she will become the first female referee to take charge of a match in the 92-year history of the tournament.
The occasion is defining and momentous for female referees around the world, but it is nothing if not on brand for the serial trailblazer.
Since the age of 13, refereeing has been Frappart's calling card, with the youngster refereeing youth matches before graduating to under-19s internationals by the time she turned 18 years old.
Frappart’s name has been on FIFA's recognised list of referees since 2009 and the milestones that litter her CV are numerous. From refereeing matches in the third division of men’s football in France in 2011, three years on, Frappart became the first woman to referee in Ligue 2 and eventually the first female referee in Ligue 1 by April 2019, her debut match arriving in the form of SC Amiens versus RC Strasbourg.
The records continued to topple as Frappart quickly established herself as one of the best referees in the world. She was appointed to the 2019 UEFA Super Cup contest between Liverpool and Chelsea, crowning her the first woman to officiate a major men’s European match. Soon after, she officiated the second leg of the inaugural Champions Cup competition, between the league winners of the League of Ireland Premier Division and the NIFL Premiership.
In December 2020, Frappart became the first woman to referee a Champions League match, taking charge of Juventus versus Dynamo Kyiv. The following year, she became the first woman to officiate a FIFA World Cup qualifier, in a match between Latvia and Netherlands.
Her efforts were recognised with successive titles of World’s Best Woman Referee from the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
And with a remarkably busy 2022 – in which she has not only set recurring records at this year's men’s World Cup but also took charge of the Coupe de France Final between Nice and Nantes and officiated this summer’s European Championship final between England and Germany – it is difficult to shake the overwhelming feeling that Frappart will be claiming the title once again.
World Cup hysteria from the middle of the park is not a foreign concept for Frappart, either. In 2015, she served as a referee in the Women’s World Cup in Canada, before following it up with another showing in the 2019 iteration in France, in which she officiated the final of the tournament between United States and the Netherlands.
Yet, in FIFA's pool of 129 referees for this year’s Qatar World Cup, Frappart represents one of only six females, alongside Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga, Japan's Yoshimi Yamashita, USA's Kathryn Nisbett, Nueza Back of Brazil and Mexico's Karen Diaz Medina, the latter two of whom will join Frappart on Thursday as assistants.
Their inclusions are historic but merited. And when Frappart leads out the World Cup’s first all-female on-pitch refereeing team on Thursday, the achievement will undoubtedly represent the brightest apogee to date in a glittering career while constituting another sizeable stride forward for female referees with Frappart at the helm.
Before the tournament began, Frappart said she hoped the inclusion of female referees in Qatar would “make things happen” on a broader level. “It’s a strong sign from Fifa and the authorities to have women referees in that country,” she said.
Costa Rica versus Germany kicks off at 7:00pm GMT on Thursday.
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