{"id":8751,"date":"2022-01-14T09:52:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T09:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone"},"modified":"2022-01-14T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T10:27:55","slug":"rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone","title":{"rendered":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) when she became the first woman officiate a match at the men\u2019s continental showpiece.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old was a fourth referee during the Group B opening match in which Guinea beat Malawi 1-0 on Tuesday, January 11, at Stade Omnisports de Bafoussam.<\/p>\n<p>Mukansanga\u2019s milestone was welcomed by her fellow local female referees, underlining that she has what it takes to show the world what she does best in Cameroon.<\/p>\n<p>When Mukansanga appeared on the list of referees selected to handle the rescheduled AFCON 2021 finals, not any of her Rwandan colleagues could believe the news about her selection until the media started to report about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could not believe it until the media reported about it shortly after CAF released the official list of referees that would handle the Africa Cup of Nations,\u201d female referee Regine Mukayiranga told Weekend Sport in an interview on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Mukayiranga has been a referee for over the past decade but only became international in 2016. She is now one of six women referees in the Rwanda topflight league.<\/p>\n<p>She hailed Mukansanga\u2019s groundbreaking journey to establish herself among the best referees that Africa, and the world of football, can count on and believes she can light the path for fellow Rwandan female referees to follow in her footsteps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have faith in her to deliver at the AFCON because she has what it takes to shine, then she can prove to Africa that Rwanda has a pool of fantastic female referees. We hope to see more opportunities open for female referees to handle international competitions because we are capable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are happy and proud of what she is achieving because she is at the same time raising the Rwandan flag high in Cameroon and showcasing what women can do in this beautiful game. There is a chance that her performance will open doors for us to be shortlisted for future competitions,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The level Mukansanga is achieving is already inspiring her fellow female referees to follow her example, as pointed out by senior female referee Sandrine Murangwa Usenga.<\/p>\n<p>Murangwa, who earned her first refereeing license in 2009, has closely followed Mukansanga\u2019s meteoric rise to becoming an international football referee.<\/p>\n<p>From officiating the CAF Women Champions League and FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup to the Africa Women Cup of Nations and Olympic Games, Mukansanga\u2019s career has been a rollercoaster in Murangwa\u2019s sights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never doubted her abilities since the first time I saw her and I have confidence she will do great in Cameroon. She\u2019s passionate and that helps her enjoy what she does,\u201d Murangwa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLanding the opportunity to officiate at the AFCON boosted our hopes that we can reach far in this career as well,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\">Rwanda<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Rwanda. Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) when she became the first woman officiate a match at the men\u2019s continental showpiece. The 33-year-old was a fourth referee during the Group B opening match in which Guinea beat Malawi 1-0 on Tuesday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18],"tags":[760,763,758],"class_list":["post-8751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCO ...\" \/>\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\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCO ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-14T09:52:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-14T10:27:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"847\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\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=\"2 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\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-14T09:52:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-14T10:27:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\"},\"wordCount\":497,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\",\"name\":\"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-14T09:52:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-14T10:27:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCO ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg\",\"width\":847,\"height\":491,\"caption\":\"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone - Rwanda","description":"Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCO ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone","og_description":"Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCO ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2022-01-14T09:52:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-14T10:27:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":847,"height":491,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone","datePublished":"2022-01-14T09:52:10+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-14T10:27:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone"},"wordCount":497,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone","name":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-14T09:52:10+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-14T10:27:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Earlier this week, Rwanda international referee Salma Mukansanga made history at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCO ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2022\/01\/img-61e15016a079b.jpg","width":847,"height":491,"caption":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/rwandan-female-referees-applaud-mukansanga-for-afcon-milestone#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rwandan female referees applaud Mukansanga for AFCON milestone"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}