COSAFA referee Akhona Makalima, and assists Diana Chikotesha and Queency Victoire, have been selected by FIFA to officiate at the 2023 Women’s World Cup being staged in Australia and New Zealand.

South African Makalima has been handed the honour along with Zambia’s Chikotesha and Victoire from Mauritius.

It is the culmination of years of hard work for the trio, who have steadily moved up through the ranks under the watchful eye of COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima.

Makalima has officiated in the Premier Soccer League in South Africa, at the COSAFA Cup and in various other international men’s and women’s competitions.

“All of these match officials have shown themselves to be extremely capable,” Tangawarima told COSAFA.com previously. “In fact, we probably had a 50-50 split of male and female match officials in the Under-17 and Under-20 zonal qualifiers (previously) and in many instances I thought our female referees outshone their male counterparts.”

Makalima is one of four referees from the continent that will do duty at the World Cup later this year, while there are seven assistants from Africa that will be travelling too.