Friday , March 29 2024

AFC women’s match officials poised to create history in AFC Champions League!

Asian football history will be made in the 2022 AFC Champions League – Group Stage later today as Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan is poised to become the first female referee to manage a tie in the Continent’s premier men’s club competition.

Alongside Yamashita, Assistant Referees, Makoto Bozono and Naomi Teshirogi have also been appointed to officiate tonight’s Group G match between Melbourne City FC and Jeonnam Dragons, which is scheduled to be held at the Pathum Thani Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand at 9pm (local time).

The trio are part of this season’s AFC Champions League match officials’ team, also comprising Malaysian Referee Assessor Widiya Habibah Binti Shamsuri and Assistant Referee Kim Kyoung-min from South Korea, who earlier made history when she was appointed to the Group J contest between Kitchee SC and Chiangrai United on April 16.

The experienced women match officials are no strangers to the men’s competitions. In May 2019, Yamashita alongside Bozono and Teshirogi became the first all-female cast to officiate an AFC Cup match when they oversaw the tie between Myanmar’s Yangon United FC and Naga World of Cambodia.

Similarly, Kim also officiated the AFC Cup match between Ceres Negros FC from the Philippines and Vietnam’s Becamex Binh Duong in 2019 and all four female officials were also appointed to the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan Qualifiers in October 2021.

The quartet, who passed the demanding fitness test and matched all the requirements for men officials before their selection, were also part of the largest-ever cast of AFC women’s match officials at the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup – India, where the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system was implemented from the Quarter-finals for the first time.

Their selection reinforces the AFC’s commitment to strengthen and develop the women’s game at all levels as well as in ensuring the AFC’s women match officials continue to receive the highest standards of quality education and expert guidance to scale the biggest stages in world football.

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