A woman's place?

The World Cup in Qatar has not been the easy guilt-free watch we normally associate with this festival of football, but in case you missed it, an important milestone was reached on the night Germany exited the tournament.

Kevin McCreeth

Kevin McCreeth

Look, I get it. It’s been hard to relax and enjoy the World Cup in any normal sense, not least because it’s December, a time of year when you should be angrily deleting ‘offers’ of Black Friday discounts while hunting bargain gifts for family members.

Plenty of football fans and friends have opted to boycott the goings-on in Qatar – fair enough, we each do what we can to make the world a better place and make our personal decisions/protests as and where we can.

Personally I’ve found it too hard to resist. Don’t get me wrong, I wish the decision hadn’t been made all those years ago to let Qatar host (and I’m happy to talk about the wisdom of letting Russia host any time you like, FYI). But, I can’t see how me not watching telly is going to make any impact on anyone other than me.

And I’m sort of glad I have, because I’ve found new ways to appreciate the tournament, not least that the single best element of the tournament is the concurrent matches played in the Group phase; more drama than Netflix, BBC etc could ever imagine.

It’s also been great watching the small ways teams have done their bit to register their unhappiness with things, whether that’s the German players all covering their mouths in the team pic, the USA team dropping the stars and stripes in the brand logo for rainbow stripes, or the Iranian men resisting the pressure to sing their national anthem. Truly powerful stuff.

However, the person who has made the best statement so far has been Stephanie Frappart.

On a night of the most remarkable football in matches full of plot twists, Ms Frappart took charge of Germany v Costa Rica. In doing so she became the first woman to ever referee a match at a men’s World Cup. Not just any game, one that millions of people tuned in to see, because of what was at stake. So every single viewer of that match had images of Ms Frappart and her team – all women – beamed into their home, regardless of their beliefs. Ms Frappart in charge. Telling men what was right and what was wrong. Penalising men who broke the rules. Running. Wearing shorts! This, surely, is what we need more of. This is the way forward if football wants to show the world another way of being. Showing little girls everywhere what is possible; showing every parent what is possible. Equality. So, well done FIFA for getting that decision right. More please.

World Cup general view: Wu Zhizhao/VCG via Getty Images
Germany vs. Costa Rica: Marvin Ibo Guengoer/GES Sportfoto/Getty Images

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