January 12 – Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita will become the first woman referee in AFC Asian Cup history to take charge of a men’s game at the finals when she leads out Australia and India for their opening group game on January 13.
Yamashita (pictured centre) is one of five female match officials to be involved in the 18th edition of the Asian Cup and will be supported at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium by assistant referees Makoto Bozono (pictured left) and Naomi Teshirogi (pictured right).
As a trio they have already written themselves into Asian football history as the first women officials to oversee matches in the AFC Cup (2019), AFC Champions League (2022) and J1 League (2023).
Yamashita was the first women’s pro ref in Japan, earning her FIFA badge in 2015, and has continually broken barriers, being the first woman to manage a J1 League match in September 2022. She was one of six women match officials appointed for the World Cup Qatar 2022 – the first appointments of women match officials in World Cup history.
Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 she took charge of the opening match and went on to officiate two more games and served as fourth official for another two. It was her second FIFA Women’s World Cup, following her debut in 2019 in France.
Alongside Bozono, Yamashita also officiated at the Women’s Asian Cup (2018 and 2022) and the Olympic Games (2020).
The Japanese officials are in action early in the tournament with Australia and India being the second match to be played the day after Qatar and Lebanon open the 2023 Asian Cup tonight. Also to be played on Saturday are China PR against Tajikistan in Group A at 5.30pm at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium and Uzbekistan versus Syria in Group B at 8.30pm at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.
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