According to the fifaworldcup.com website: http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/t/match/index.html?st=zone&zone=eur&tm=all&ym=200409 German referee Rebekka Kirchner has been appointed to officiate in the match between Andorra and Romania (in Andorra la Vella) in September. Rebekka Kirchner (with picture): http://www.dfb.de/dfb-info/schiedsrichter/anklicken_f/kirchner.html Has this happened before? J
There is always a first for everything. We'll see how she handles the nastiness, swearing and complaining of us men. She must be a tough cookie.
Interesting... You occasionally see male refs for women's sports but I can't recall ever seeing the opposite.
Rebekka Kirchner is probably the first woman to officiate in the men's World Cup, but Nicole Petignat became the first woman to referee a men's UEFA Cup match in August last year. http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/news/Kind=1024/newsId=90845.html http://ussoccerplayers.com/latest_soccer_news/usa_soccer/wusa/378782.html Silvia Regina de Oliveira was the first female referee to officiate the top Brazilian professional league. There is also Cristina Ionescu in Romania and Sonia Denoncourt in Canada.