Five Korean female referees will go to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia-New Zealand.
The Korea Football Association announced on the 9th that “FIFA has announced a list of referees for the Women’s World Cup, including five Korean female referees.” Referee Park Mi-suk (40) has been named as an assistant referee, and this is the first time that five Korean referees are at the same time in the Women’s World Cup.
Previously, the maximum number of participants was two. In the 2003 U.S. tournament, assistant referees Lim Eun-ju and Choi Soo-jin were selected, and in the 2011 German tournament, referee Cha Seong-mi and Kim Gyeong-mi were selected as assistant referees. In the 2019 French tournament, Kim Kyung-min and Lee Seul-gi were also selected as assistant referees.
‘Veteran’ Kim Kyung-min, assistant referee, will participate in the 5th consecutive Women’s World Cup since the 2007 China Championship. Regardless of gender, assistant referee Kim 토토 is the first Korean soccer player to participate in the FIFA World Cup five times, including players, coaches and referees. Assistant referee Lee Seul-gi was also selected for the second time in a row following the 2019 French tournament.
All three referees are in the World Cup for the first time. Oh Hyun-jung, the referee, is the 2017 Korean Football Association’s ‘Female Referee of the Year Award’ winner. It was her first time competing in a FIFA-sponsored competition since participating in the 2014 Women’s Under-17 (U-17) World Cup in Costa Rica. Since 2019, she has even been selected as the ‘Women’s Special Referee’ for four consecutive years.
Referee Kim Yoo-jung, who participated in the U-20 Women’s World Cup held in Costa Rica last year, also won the 2019 Football Association Women’s Referee Award. Referee Kim Yoo-jung is also the first woman to participate in the Women’s World Cup.
Assistant referee Park Mi-sook, who is currently serving as a referee in the Australian men’s professional soccer team, was also named on the World Cup referee list for the first time.
A total of 107 referees, including 33 referees, 56 assistant referees and 18 VAR referees, will participate in the 2023 Australia-New Zealand competition, which will be held from July 20 to August 20 this year. Six referees, the most in the United States, will participate. Korea climbed to the second place jointly with Canada, with five names on the list.
The Korean women’s soccer team, led by coach Colin Bell, was placed in Group H along with Germany, Morocco and Colombia. Korea’s best performance in the Women’s World Cup was the round of 16 at the 2015 Canadian Tournament.