By Amaechi Agbo

World football governing body, FIFA has listed four African women referees among the 33 officials to handle matches at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand

Leading the quartet is highly experienced Vincentia Enyonam Amedome of Togo.

Vincentia Amedome officiated Nigeria Vs Ghana Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, WAFCON qualifier on October 21, 2021 in Lagos.

Other Africa officials include Karboubi Bouchra of Morocco, Makalima Akhona of South Africa and Mukansanga Salima of Rwanda. They will join other 29 officials from other continents of the world to officiate matches

Also included in the Assistant Referees (AR) list are Mali, Zambia, Cameroon with one AR each while Morocco has two ARs.

In a release on Monday, FIFA noted that the selected match officials represent “highest level of women’s refereeing worldwide” adding that they will undergo various seminars before the tournament commences.

FIFA Referees Committee announced the names of the match officials selected for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 on Monday with a total of 33 referees, 55 assistant referees and 19 video match officials (VMOs)

They were chosen in close cooperation with the six confederations, based on the officials’ quality and the performances delivered at FIFA tournaments as well as at other international and domestic competitions in recent years. 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,” said the chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina.

“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 & New Zealand 2023 is to repeat that success and to convince again with excellent referees’ performances.”

Only Morocco’s Zourak Adil was named among the 19 Video Match Officials

The tournament will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand and is scheduled to take place from 20 July to 20 August 2023; it will be the first FIFA Women’s World Cup to have more than one host nation, and also be the first senior World Cup of either gender to be held across multiple confederations, as Australia is within the Asian Confederation while New Zealand is within the Oceania Confederation.

In addition, this tournament will be the first to feature the expanded format of 32 teams, from the previous 24, replicating the same format used for the men’s World Cup.

The opening match will be between New Zealand and Norway at Eden Park, Auckland on 20 July 2023. The final will take place on 20 August 2023 at Stadium Australia, Sydney.

The United States are the defending champions, having won the previous two tournaments.