Rwanda's Salima Mukansanga will go into the annals of football history as the first African Woman to officiate at the FIFA World Cup after being named among the referees for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The Rwandan became the first woman to officiate at the Africa Cup of Nations in the group stages.

On January 18, 2022, Mukansanga took charge of the group stage game between Guinea and Zimbabwe at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde which Zimbabwe won 2-1.

She is the first woman from Rwanda to officiate at a FIFA Women's World Cup and the first woman ever to officiate at the men's Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon and now will soon be the first ever African woman to officiate at FIFA men's  World Cup.

Female referees will officiate matches at this year's men's World Cup for the first time in the tournament's history.

France's Stephanie Frappart, Rwanda's Salima Mukansanga and Japan's Yoshimi Yamashita have been selected to take charge of games in Qatar.

They will be supported by three female assistant referees.

Premier League referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor have also been chosen for the tournament, which begins on Monday, 21 November.

Taylor refereed the Euro 2020 match between Denmark and Finland, and was praised for reacting quickly to ensure Christian Eriksen received urgent medical attention after collapsing on the field.

In total, 36 referees, 69 assistant referees and 24 video match officials have been chosen for this year's tournament.

"As always, the criteria we have used is 'quality first' and the selected match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide," said the chairman of Fifa's referees committee Pierluigi Collina.

"This concludes a long process that began several years ago with the deployment of female referees at Fifa men's junior and senior tournaments.

"In this way, we clearly emphasise it is quality that counts for us and not gender.

"I would hope that in the future, the selection of elite women's match officials for important men's competitions will be perceived as something normal and no longer as sensational."