World football ruling body, FIFA has appointed a total of 73 officials for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup billed for June in Canada. The officials made up of 22 centre referees, 7 support referees and 44 assistant referees from 49 countries were appointed by the FIFA Referees Committee headed by Jim Boyce of Northern Ireland. The selected referees and assistants are to be monitored regularly during the periods preceding the summer championship in Canada. Prior to the tournament kick off on June 6, 2015, the 73 match officials were expected to participate in a couple of seminars in Zurich from April 18-24 and in Vancouver ten days to the curtain 10 in Canada. FIFA had implemented a comprehensive programme to ensure that the referees for this very important competition would be in peak condition come 6 June. Just as it did for the 24 participating teams, the road to the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 began for an initial group of referees and assistant referees from all over the world in September 2012, when FIFA took the important decision to create a women's refereeing project. One of the key objectives was match control and consequently to prepare this group of prospective referees for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015. The referees selected for the tournament in Canada had been chosen based especially on their personality and their quality in terms of football understanding by being able to read the game and the teams' tactical approaches towards each match. - Sun
