Late in the evening of January 9, FIFA officially unveiled the referee lineup for the 2023 Women's World Cup. In this star-studded list, China's leading referee Xie Lijun is honored to serve as an assistant referee. There are 33 referees, 55 assistant referees and 19 video assistant referees on the list. FIFA Refereeing Committee Chairman Corina emphasized in his introduction that the referees were selected on the basis of the principle of "Law Enforcement Level Comes First", and that they represent the highest level of refereeing in the current field. The success of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France was due to the professionalism of the referees. For the tournament in Australia and New Zealand, President Corina expects the refereeing team to continue the excellent performance of the previous edition.
Lydia Hsieh's appearance (marked in yellow) stands out in the list of assistant referees.
It is worth noting that FIFA has been on a journey to select referees for the Women's World Cup since 2020, which it has named "The Road to Australia and New Zealand". Over the past two years, more than 170 candidates have been selected after rigorous evaluation and preparation. The referees will gather in Doha, Qatar, in January and February to attend seminars, analyze video footage of field enforcement and train with athletes in order to be at their best on the pitch.
In the announced list, Xie Lijun, as the only representative of Chinese referees, will once again serve as law enforcement in large international tournaments. Since the Women's Asian Cup last year, and then to the u17 Women's World Cup ended, Xie Lijun has always been active in the large-scale women's football matches in the enforcement line. Prior to this, she also served as a referee in the National Games, the World Military Games, the Southeast Asian Games and other events, and in the Women's Super League, Women's League for many years as law enforcement.
The 2023 Women's World Cup will be played passionately from July 20 to August 20 in New Zealand and Australia. The Chinese women's soccer team is in Group D with England and Denmark, while the opponent in Group B of the play-offs will be one of Senegal, Haiti or Chile.
