IRISH MATCH OFFICIAL Michelle O’Neill will feature as an assistant referee at this summer’s Fifa Women’s World Cup.

The Wexford native will join Vera Pauw’s Republic of Ireland women’s national team at their first-ever major tournament, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 20 July to 20 August.

O’Neill, who was one of the assistant referees for the 2019 World Cup final between champions USA and the Netherlands, is among 55 assistant referees selected by Fifa for the upcoming tournament.

33 referees and support referees and 19 video match officials have also been appointed, with six female video match officials included for the first time. 

• You can view the full list of officials here >

The only Irish match official selected, this will be O’Neill’s third World Cup, having previously appeared at the 2015 edition. She also officiated at last summer’s European Championships in England and the most recent Olympic Games in Tokyo.

O’Neill has plied her trade in the League of Ireland for over a decade and etched her name into history on the world stage with the 2019 World Cup final refereeing team. In August 2019, they oversaw the Uefa Super Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea (O’Neill was assistant referee on that occasion), while they also combined for a huge England v Germany international friendly at Wembley Stadium.  

England’s Rebecca Welch and Cheryl Foster of Wales have also been named among the referees. Natalie Aspinall has been included on the assistant referee list with compatriot Sian Massey-Ellis selected for VAR duties, taking the total of English match officials to three.

“As always, the criteria we have used is ‘quality first’ and the selected on-field match officials represent the highest level of refereeing worldwide,” said Fifa referees committee chairman Pierluigi Collina.