Stephanie Frappart: who is French referee to make history as first female in charge of men’s World Cup match?

A moment of history will take place at the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals tomorrow as a female referee leads a team of all female officials in a match at football’s showpiece competition for the first time.

French referee Stéphanie Frappart will be in charge of the Group E match between Costa Rica and Germany, a must win for the Germans if they are to have any hope of reaching the knockout stages. FIFA announced on Tuesday that the 38-year old would be the woman in the middle for the match, having featured as the fourth official during Mexico vs Poland in Group C earlier in the tournament. Here is everything you need to know about Frappart ahead of her history making moment:

Who is Stephanie Frappart?

Frappart is set to make history by becoming the first woman to referee a match at the men’s world cup finals. The 38-year old, from Le Plessis-Bouchard in France, has been officiating men’s matches since 2011 starting in the Championnat National - the third tier of men’s senior football in France.

Since then, Frappart has refereed matches in Ligue 2 and Ligue 1 as well as European competitions including the UEFA Champions League where she was the first woman to referee a match in that competition when she took charge of Juventus and Dynamo Kyiv in September 2020. Other significant milestones in her career so far have seen her take charge of the 2019 UEFA Super Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea and the 2022 Coupe de France Final between Nantes and Nice.

Earlier this year Frappart was the first woman to referee a men’s FIFA World Cup qualifier in a match between the Netherlands and Latvia. She has been a FIFA listed official since 2009 and has won the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) award for Best Woman Referee three years in a row between 2019 and 2021.

Who will make up the rest of the refereeing team for Costa Rica vs Germany?

Frappart will be joined by assistant referees Neuza Back of Brazil and Mexico’s Karen Díaz Medina. Two other female referees have also been included in Fifa’s pool of World Cup officials for the tournament, Salima Mukansanga of Rwanda and Japan’s Yamashita Yoshimi.

Costa Rica vs Germany: date, kick off time and how to watch on UK TV

Costa Rica vs Germany will kick off alongside the other match in Group E, Japan vs Spain, at 7pm (GMT) on Thursday, December 1. The German’s have to win the match to have any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages while Costa Rica likely also need a win unless they draw and Spain beat Japan by more than six goals.

The match will be shown live in the UK on ITV4, with Japan vs Spain being shown on the main ITV/STV channel. Build up for the match starts at 6:15pm ahead of the 7pm kick off. That match can also be streamed online via the ITV/STV player.