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France’s Stephanie Frappart will turn into the primary girl to referee a males’s Champions League match on Wednesday when Juventus host Dynamo Kiev in Turin, European soccer’s governing physique UEFA confirmed.
The 36-year-old has already made historical past as the primary girl to referee within the French prime flight, and took cost of the 2019 UEFA Tremendous Cup last between Liverpool and Chelsea. She additionally made her Europa League debut in October.
It’s the first time {that a} girl has been assigned to referee a sport in Europe’s most prestigious membership competitors.
Italian giants Juventus host Ukrainian facet Dynamo in Group G on the Allianz Stadium.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juve, second within the group, are already by means of to the final 16 together with leaders Barcelona with two video games to play.
Frappart, who began refereeing on the age of 13, was the primary girl referee within the French second division in 2014, transferring as much as the boys’s Ligue 1 5 years later.
In Europe, she was additionally the primary girl to referee a males’s worldwide when she took cost of September’s Nations League match between Malta and Latvia, and she or he lately refereed her first two Europa League matches — Leicester v Zorya Luhansk on October 22 and Granada v Omonia Nicosia final Thursday.
Frappart follows within the footsteps of two trailblazers in Nicole Petignat, the primary girl to officiate within the UEFA Cup in 2003, and Bibiana Steinhaus, who turned the primary girl referee in a significant European league when she arrived in Germany’s Bundesliga.
“It’s on the similar time a privilege, an honour and a duty,” Frappart mentioned earlier than her first full season on the prime in 2019/2020 which was lower quick due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I hope that my profession will encourage younger women to turn into concerned in refereeing.”
Liverpool supervisor Jurgen Klopp praised Frappart and her assistants’ dealing with of the 2019 Tremendous Cup last.
“There was a lot stress for an historic second. They remained calm and did what they needed to do. I could not have extra respect for Stephanie Frappart,” mentioned the German.
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