Home nations referees miss out on whistling duties for 2019 Women’s World Cup finals

The referees for the 2019 Women’s World Cup

The referees and assistant referees for the 2019 Women’s World Cup finals have been announced. All six Confederations are represented with New Zealand’s Anna-Marie Keighley being the sole Oceania representative.

Five of the referees come from the Asian Federation, five from CONCACAF, three from Africa and four from South America.

Of the nine Europeans, none come from the home countries. There are two Germans, Bibiana Steinhaus and Riem Hussein, and one each from Czech Republic, host nation France, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine. Russia and Switzerland.

Katja Koroleva is the only US referee on the FIFA list

There are two Canadians, the Francophone Marie-Soleil Beaudoin and the anglophone 2016 CONCACAF Female Referee of the Year Carol Anne Chenard.

Somewhat surprisingly only one American makes the list, Katja Koroleva.

All 27 are female.

The home nations are represented among the assistant referees. Scotland’s Kylie Cockburn is joined by England’s Sian Massey and Lisa Rashid.

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup starts on June 7th when hosts France will take on South Korea in the competition’s opening match at the Parc des Princes in Paris at 21:00 local time. That match is in Group A.

The following day Spain take on South Africa also in Group A, Nigeria play Norway and the day concludes with a very intriguing match between Germany and China, both in Group B.

June 9th sees the big Scotland v England clash in Nice in Group D, Earlier that day, two Group C matches take place; Australia v Italy and Brazil v Jamaica.

Argentina play Japan in Scotland’s Group the next day while Cameroon face Canada in Group E’s first match on June 10.

The following day, New Zealand face the dangerous Dutch in Group E, while Group F starts with world champions USA v Thailand and Chile v Sweden.

Japan leads the list with three assistants and a host of other nations have two.