UEFA announced on Wednesday that France's Stéphanie Frappart was among the referees selected for the Euro 2021 men's football tournament. She will officiate as 4th referee or reserve assistance referee, a first for a woman in this competition. Aged 37, this woman has managed over time to make a place for herself in the football landscape. A first!
Stéphanie Frappart on the rise
The list of the 18 main referees who will officiate at the next Euro which will take place from June 11 to July 11. Among the men, including the Frenchman Clément Turpin, is a woman: Stéphanie Frappart. She will become the first woman to officiate at a European Championship. She is even the 1st woman to be selected in the panel of referees of an international men's competition. The French will not be central referee but 4th referee or reserve assistant referee. As a reminder, the fourth referee is the one who holds the table of changes and the extra time. She will also ensure that coaches stay in their zones.
👏 🇫🇷 Stéphanie Frappart sera la première femme arbitre à un EURO masculin. La Française est sélectionnée comme quatrième arbitre ou arbitre assistante de réserve à l'#EURO2020. pic.twitter.com/zPwPvsA0Uz
— UEFA EURO 2024 🇫🇷 (@EURO2024FRA) April 21, 2021
A pioneer in football
As a referee, Stéphanie Frappart set many records. She climbed the refereeing ladder at full speed. Frappart is the first woman to referee a Ligue 2 match in 2014 as well as Ligue 1 in 2019. In the same year, she became the first referee of the final of the Women's World Cup and the UEFA Men's Super Cup. On the European scene, Stéphanie Frappart was also the first woman to lead an official men's international match, during the Malta-Latvia match on 6 September 2020 in the Nations League. It also played its first two Europa League matches on 22 October (Leicester-Zorya Luhansk) and 26 November (Granada-Omonia Nicosia). Another very big distinction, by refereeing Juventus Turin-Dynamo Kiev in early December 2020, she had become the first woman to officiate as the main referee of a Champions League match, and her performance that night, controlled, had been praised by the press.
