FIFA picks Kenya’s Mary Njoroge for Women’s World Cup duty
International football governing body, FIFA, has chosen Kenyan referee Mary Njoroge to oversee the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Njoroge is one of the tournament’s 33 referees, 55 assistant referees, and 19 video match officials.
Njoroge is listed specifically among the 55 assistant referees.
“They (officials) have been chosen in close cooperation with the six confederations, based on the officials’ quality and the performances delivered at FIFA tournaments as well as at other international and domestic competitions in recent years,” FIFA said in a statement.
For the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, six female Video Match Officials have also been selected.
The chosen match officials will attend preparatory seminars (in Doha and Montevideo) in January and February. There, they will review and analyze video clips of actual match situations and take part in hands-on training sessions with players. These sessions will be filmed so that participants can receive immediate feedback from instructors.
She is also one of the 29 match officials chosen from around the globe to officiate the World Cup playoff tournament, which will start on February 17 and end on February 23, 2023.
Previously, Njoroge was also picked to officiate the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France which ran from June 7, 2019, to July 7, 2019
She is the second Kenyan official to receive a high-ranking international assignment after Peter Kamaku was picked to officiate at CHAN in Algeria.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup, an international women’s football championship played every four years between women’s national association football teams and hosted by FIFA, is set to take place for the ninth time in this year.
Australia and New Zealand will share hosting duties for the event, which will happen from 20 July to 20 August 2023.