The main match of the World Cup Group A between Bafana Bafana and Czechia will be refereed by women.
This match, which will be held at Atlanta Stadium, in the United States, will start at 6 pm on Thursday.
It will be played by the referee from the United States, Tori Penso, assisted by his countrymen Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt, and Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh from New Zealand will be the fourth referee (fourth official).
This game is important for both countries after they opened the tournament with a bat.
Bafana was knocked down by one of the three World Cup host countries, Mexico, 2-0 last Thursday, while Czechia was defeated by Korea Republic 2-1.
These results put both teams in jeopardy as they need to collect points in their remaining two group games to regain hope of progressing to the knockout stages.
One of the highlights of Bafana Bafana’s first game was the carelessness of the players as the two midfielders, Sphephelo Sithole and Themba Zwane, were sent off with red cards in the game officiated by the Brazilian referee, Wilton Sampaio.
The first female referee to officiate a match in the men’s World Cup was Stéphanie Frappart from France, who refereed the match between Costa Rica and Germany in Qatar in 2022.