A Malaysian referee is one of two female referees from Asia chosen to officiate at the Olympics football tournament Rio de Janeiro in August.
The Star Online‘s Eric Samuel reports that the selection of Rita Ghani — a referee with more than 10 years of local and international experience — and North Korea’s Ri Hyang-ok were confirmed by the FIFA Referees Committee recently.
From Aug 5-21, 18 referees and 32 assistant referees will be involved in men’s football matches, while 14 referees and 24 assistant referees will officiate the women’s tournament, the portal reports.
The 38-year-old from Sabah had last year made Malaysian history by becoming the first female official to represent the country at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada last year.
In 2014, Rita beat tough competition from Sachiko Yamagishi of Japan and Pannipar Kamnueng of Thailand to win the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Referee of the Year award.
Fly the flag high, Rita!
