By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (January 19^th 2022)

Making History

Rwanda’s Salima Mukansanga was not the only female official to make history at AFCON today – at least she wasn’t supposed to have been. Cameroonian Carine Atemzabong and Moroccan Fatiha Jermoumi were listed to assist Mukasanga in a scheduled all-female team of officials, but Lahsen Azgaou and Oliver Kabene Safari assisted her instead. The reasons for the change in the planned team of officials has not been made clear.

However, Moroccan official, Bouchra Karboubi, also made history in the same match as Mukansanga by becoming the first woman to operate VAR at AFCON. She wasn’t called on to make a decision but a grey area could have tested both Karboubi and Mukansanga as a free kick was taken rapidly before the referee could hand out a yellow card that the Zimbabwean defenders were waiting.

No goal was scored, or any other match-changing situation, so VAR could not be used, but if Guinea had scored, could VAR have been used? Mukasanga brandished six yellow cards during the match – one slightly After having the yellow card that she dropped returned to her Mukansanga cautioned Zimbabwe’s goalkeeper, Talbert Shumba, after 57 minutes.

The assessment team was impressed with her performance. All referees have fitness targets. They would not be allowed to officiate without meeting them. As Mukasanga admits, she cannot run as fast as men. She doesn’t have to.

Some observers (male) thought Mukansanga did not keep up with play as well as is required especially at this level. The assessment team disagreed.

CAF was asked for comment on some issues in this match, which will be detailed in another article. The response was not worth printing. In fact, the later explanation was offensive.