FIFA's Referees Committee has selected 27 referees and 48 assistant referees for the FIFA Women's World Cup which will be hosted in 2019 in France. This comes ahead of the official draw that will see 24 teams divided into groups of six.
Per a report by FIFA, the training of the selected officials from 42 countries all over the world started way back in September 2015. The referees have gone through preparatory seminars which "focus on protecting players and the image of the game, as well as on consistency in interpreting the Laws of the Game."
Also, technical expertise, football understanding, fitness and the ability to read the game and teams' tactical approaches to matches are said to be among the major topics discussed during those conferences. Preparations in the form of more seminars is expected to continue for the designated referees from now till the start of France 2019 with FIFA hoping to get all the officials fully equipped for the upcoming tournament.
With the officials already gaining prior experience from tournaments such as the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan 2016 and Uruguay 2018, as well as the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea, the exercise is expected to be proceed smoothly.
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup will officially commence in France on June 7 and will be concluded on July 7. The matches will be played across nine cities with Grenoble, Le Havre, Lyon, Montpellier, Nice, Paris, Reims, Rennes and Valenciennes featuring as venues.
Australia, Canada, England, Germany, United States and host nation France will all fancy their chances on the world stage. The tournament's final is scheduled for Sunday, July 7, 2019 in Lyon.
