Female referees will make history at the Qatar World Cup later this year when a group of six will officiate games at a major men's tournament for the first time.
Three female referees and three female assistant referees were included among 129 officials selected for World Cup duty by FIFA on Thursday.
Thursday's confirmation that Stephanie Frappart of France, Rwanda's Salima Mukansanga and Yoshimi Yamashita of Japan have been included in a 36-long list of referees for the 2022 World Cup is welcome news.
It doesn't matter if you're male or female, FIFA just want the world's best referees — a group of officials who can guarantee that the spectacle in Qatar will be as good as it deserves to be.
This is no box-ticking exercise. It's well deserved and long overdue. Frappart, for example, has experience in the Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, Super Cup, you name it.
She's shown on those grand stages that she's as good, if not better, than enough of her male counterparts to be deserving of a spot in Qatar. I wish them all the best because refereeing at a World Cup truly is special.
For England, it's good that we have Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor representing us, but embarrassing for Mike Riley and PGMOL that there will be no English VAR representatives.
That tells you what FIFA are making of the technology's use in the Premier League — and it isn't good.