Newsletter

Soccer World Cup in Qatar: Revolution on the lawn: Stéphanie Frappart (nd-aktuell.de)

Now in focus: So far, Stéphanie Frappart has only been used as the fourth official.

Photo: imago/Panoramic

42 of the 64 World Cup games will have been played when a small revolution in the long history of the tournament takes place outside in Al Khor, an hour north of Doha: for the first time in more than 92 years of World Cup football, a woman will be present on the pitch be when the ball rolls. The match between Germany and Costa Rica will be officiated by French referee Stéphanie Frappart. Finally – some observers might say. Because it was a bit strange that six women were appointed to »Team One« before the tournament for the first time, but so far they had only been used as fourth officials.

In Fifa jargon, “Team One” is the official name for the ensemble of 129 referees at this tournament. Three of the nominated women are qualified to referee World Cup matches: Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga, Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita and Frappart, who will now be the focus of the football world for a moment. It doesn’t scare her. “I was the first female referee in France, the first in Europe, the first every time. I know how to deal with it,” she told the English sports portal “The Athletic” before the start of the tournament.

The 38-year-old referee has already officiated more than 50 men’s games at the highest level in Europe: in the French League 1, twice in the Champions League and six games in the Europa League. There is probably no more suitable candidate for this historic World Cup moment, especially since she also has a good reputation among players. Pierre Bouby, a former midfielder for second-division club US Orleans, once said of Frappart: “She’s the best referee in Ligue 2. Her voice is low, but she has charisma and personality. She’s diplomatic and you can talk to her. She doesn’t try to be the center of attention.”

Two days before the opening match, Pierluigi Collina, head of Fifa’s refereeing department, had hinted that a woman’s nomination for one of the matches was coming. The appointment of women to Team One for the first time was “proof that quality and not gender” is what matters, he said. »They deserve to be there because they consistently perform very well.«

The first to take the big stage is Frappart, who discovered her love for football by watching her father’s amateur games. “I played myself on Saturdays and refereed games on Sundays since I was 13,” she says. “But when I started to study sport, it was too much sport at some point.” So she concentrated on working with the whistle, which is crowned with the appointment for the game of the Germans – a game that could fit quite well. Because at least most of the players in the DFB-Elf have already had experience with female referees. Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb has directed a number of Bundesliga games, a woman on the pitch is nothing new for many German footballers.

The former world-class referee Urs Meier is nevertheless relatively certain that there are more strategic considerations than technical considerations behind the women’s invitation to this World Cup. When Meier was asked about Frappart earlier this week, he asked himself in his podcast: »If she is not yet number two or number three in France, why are she offered? (…) It’s not the performance principle.«

In Meier’s eyes, more experienced people like the German Deniz Aytekin should have been called up at international (men’s) level in order to keep the quality of refereeing as high as possible. Although Meier finds that the performance of the referees has been very good so far.

Very serious mistakes are rare, the video assistants work relatively inconspicuously, “the level of the referees is good,” said Meier. “The line that is drawn between protecting the players and trying to keep the games going is a good mix.” That means, however, that the bar is relatively high for Stéphanie Frappart. But she’s used to that as a woman who has had to assert herself in a male domain for many years – not only towards the players, but also in the fight against many prejudices.

Read all our articles on the World Cup in Qatar at: dasnd.de/katar

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending