Guadalupe Porras will be assistant referee and Alejandro Hernández Hernández and Juan Martínez Munuera will act as VAR assistants
9 Jan. () –
Marta Huerta de Aza from Palencia will be the only Spanish main referee in the World Cup that will be held from July 20 to August 20, 2023 in Australia and New Zealand, according to the list of appointments offered by FIFA this Monday, for which they have valued the “quality” of his work and the performance shown in national and international tournaments in recent years, according to a statement.
In total, FIFA has selected 33 female referees, 55 assistant referees and 19 members of the VAR team, who will form ‘FIFA Team One’. In addition, for the first time in the history of the women’s World Cup, six women have been selected to join the video refereeing team.
“We have used quality criteria above all. For this reason, the selected field referees represent the best of world refereeing. We all remember the Women’s World Cup held in France in 2019. The exceptional quality of the refereeing contributed to the resounding success of the competition. In 2023, we intend to repeat it and convince again with the excellent performance of the referees,” said the president of the FIFA Referees Committee, Pierluigi Collina, in statements published by the body.
Among the team designated by FIFA is Marta Huerta de Aza as the only main Spanish collegiate in the tournament. The woman from Palencia has been a First Division referee since 2017 and also directed the final of the Copa de la Reina in 2018 and two finals of the Spanish Women’s Super Cup (2020 and 2022).
In the tournament, Guadalupe Porras, with experience in LaLiga Santander matches, will also be there as an assistant. In addition, the Spanish representation is completed by Alejandro Hernández Hernández and Juan Martínez Munuera, who have been appointed as VAR assistant referees.
Among the international team, there will be no shortage of Stéphanie Frappart, Karen Díaz and Neuza Back, who already made history by becoming the first female referee trio to whistle a World Cup match, specifically the group match between Costa Rica and Germany in Qatar. In addition, Kathryn Nesbitt, who will also attend the event in 2023, participated as assistant referee in the England-Senegal round of 16 match.
FIFA also advanced that the selected referees will attend preparation seminars in January and February, which will be held in Doha and Montevideo, where they will review and analyze videos of real plays, and will train in practical sessions with the participation of players.
FIFA’s Head of Women’s Refereeing, Kari Seitz, said that female referees will continue to receive the necessary support from FIFA, as their preparation is essential. “We have developed new programs to accelerate the preparation of the candidates. For example, a FIFA trainer was assigned to each of the referees, who provided monthly evaluations of the matches in which her pupil participated,” she explained.
