{"id":30084,"date":"2022-11-23T12:37:18","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T12:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny"},"modified":"2022-11-23T12:59:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T12:59:26","slug":"rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny","title":{"rendered":"Rwanda at World Cup: Mukansanga’s date with destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Rwandan referee Salma Mukansanga will be the first African woman to call a men\u2019s FIFA World Cup game, when defending champions France take on Australia in Group D opener, slated for Tuesday, November 22, at Al Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah, in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Mukansanga and several other women colleagues at the tournament will be held to the same performance standards as their male colleagues.<\/p>\n

The other two female center refs of the tournament are Japanese Yamashita Yoshimi and France’s Stephanie Frappart.<\/p>\n

For Mukansanga, being selected as part of the group of 36 who will be dishing out the cards and visiting the pitch-side monitors at the major tournament, perhaps marks her biggest achievement at 34 years of age.<\/p>\n

In 2021, she become the first woman to officiate at the AFCON tournament.<\/p>\n

Both competitions add on a rather lucrative career that has seen her officiate Olympic games and the 2019 Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

The France-Australia kick off will be at 21:00\u2019.<\/p>\n

Mukansanga will be the fourth official for the fixture, alongside South Africa\u2019s Victor Gomes, the center referee, assisted by fellow countrymen Zakhele Siwela and Lesothian Souru Phatsoane.<\/p>\n

According to FIFA, selecting a refereeing team for a major tournament comes with just as many trials and tribulations as choosing a squad\u2019s 26 best players, and there are several criteria that the selection must meet.<\/p>\n

In a process that began three years ago, over 50 refereeing trios were analyzed, before selecting the final 36, and although a 16-person board selects the best officials there are several geographical considerations taken on board.<\/p>\n

Who is Mukansanga?<\/p>\n

Born in Rusizi District, Western Province, Mukansanga was passionate about sports since childhood. She first tried playing basketball, but due to the difficulty associated with access to facilities, turned focus to football.<\/p>\n

She officiated in the men\u2019s second division league and women\u2019s championship for 10 years before being promoted to the men\u2019s premier league in 2018. Since then, she has never looked back, as she has achieved milestone after milestone. She became the first Rwandan female referee to officiate at any FIFA World Cup event during the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Uruguay.<\/p>\n

In 2019, she was selected by FIFA among match officials who would handle the 2019 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup. Now, in 2022, she is officiating at the World Cup.<\/p>\n

More assignments<\/p>\n

Mukansanga\u2019s first international tournament was the women\u2019s football competition at the 2015 All-Africa Games in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n

She was in charge of the opening match between Nigeria and Tanzania, and the semi-final clash between Ghana and Ivory Coast. The same year, she was one of the celeb referees that handled the 2015 CECAFA Women Challenge Cup in Jinja, Uganda \u2013 which was won by Tanzania.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Mukansanga was among 47 referees that handled the Africa Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon. She was in charge of the tournament\u2019s final match between the hosts and Nigeria, which ended 1-0 in favor of the Super Falcons of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Mukansanga\u2019s career hit a new high in 2021 when, to everyone\u2019s surprise, she was named as the only African on the official list of referees that led the FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup in Uruguay from November 13 to December 1.<\/p>\n

She oversaw three matches: The Group A match between the hosts and New Zealand, Group B\u2019s match between Japan and Mexico, and one quarter-final tie between Canada and Germany. She was also the fourth official during the third place clash, which saw New Zealand beating Canada 2-1 to take the bronze medal.<\/p>\n

Thanks to her excellent performance in Uruguay, Mukansanga was chosen among Africa\u2019s three referees to officiate at the 2019 Women\u2019s World Cup in France.<\/p>\n

Besides her sports profession, Mukansanga holds a bachelor\u2019s degree from the University of Gitwe in Nursing and Midwifery.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Rwandan referee Salma Mukansanga will be the first African woman to call a men\u2019s FIFA World Cup game, when defending champions France take on Australia in Group D opener, slated for Tuesday, November 22, at Al Janoub Stadium in Al-Wakrah, in Qatar. Mukansanga and several other women colleagues at the tournament will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-30084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nRwanda at World Cup: Mukansanga's date with destiny - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rwandan referee Salma Mukansanga will be the first African woman to call a men\u2019s FIFA World Cup game, when defending cha ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rwanda at World Cup: Mukansanga's date with destiny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rwandan referee Salma Mukansanga will be the first African woman to call a men\u2019s FIFA World Cup game, when defending cha ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-23T12:37:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-23T12:59:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669194486.00.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rwanda at World Cup: Mukansanga’s date with destiny\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-23T12:37:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-23T12:59:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny\"},\"wordCount\":648,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/11\/postQueueImg_1669194486.00.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwanda-at-world-cup-mukansangas-date-with-destiny\",\"name\":\"Rwanda at World Cup: Mukansanga's date with destiny - 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