The FIFA Referees Committee has appointed 21 trios of match officials, representing all six confederations. In addition to this, the governing body has also selected seven support referees, but with a twist: for the first-ever time, FIFA has selected female referees for a men’s tournament.
The results and improvements seen in the joint preparations have shown that the 90-minute game is no longer just for the masculine gender as time has come for elite female referees to officiate in men’s competitions together with their male counterparts.
“We think it’s time for elite female referees to be involved in a FIFA men’s competition. They worked together with male match officials last year and now we want to see them working together in a competition,” said FIFA Head of Refereeing Massimo Busacca.
The referees have undergone a host of activities together in several seminars including theoretical sessions in the classroom and practical sessions on the field of play. The match officials have also discussed and practised various game situations to achieve consistency and uniformity.
The list of appointed match officials is as follows:
List of support referees-
KOH Min Kiat
SIN
YAMAUCHI Hiroshi
JPN
SALEH Ebrahim Mubarak
BHR
HMILA Anouar
TUN
MAHAMADOU Yahaya
NIG
SSONKO Mark
UGA
ROCKWELL Corey
USA
FERNÁNDEZ Carlos
RAMIREZ Christian
HON
LOPEZ Carlos
VEN
ZORRILLA Juan
PAR
VAN GASSE Marcelo
BRA
ANTELO Jose Alberto
BOL
MUTUKERA Bernard
SOL
GHEORGHE Sebastian
ROU
MATHER Alastair
SCO
DIMITRIADIS Lazaros
GRE
SANTOS SOARES Paulo Alexandre
POR
NUNN Adam
ENG
GRINGORE Cyril
FRA
KOVACIC Andraz
SVN
The FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 will take place in Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Navi Mumbai and New Delhi between 6 and 28 October 2017. The final will be played at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan Stadium in Kolkata on 28 October.
