Malaysia’s Rita Ghani is among two women referees from Asia selected to officiate at the Olympic football tournament in Rio

Malaysian ref Rita to officiate at Rio Olympics

Rita made history as the first woman official to represent Malaysia at the FIFA women’s World Cup in Canada last year. — the-afc.com

THE STAR

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Rita Ghani is among two women referees from Asia selected to officiate at the Olympic football tournament in Rio de Janeiro in August.

The men’s competition will be officiated by 18 referees and 32 assistant referees, while the women’s tournament will have 14 referees and 24 assistant referees on duty at the Games, which will be held from Aug 5-21.The appointments of the 38-year-old Sabahan and North Korea’s Ri Hyang-ok were confirmed by the FIFA Referees Committee recently.

Rita, with more than 10 years of refereeing experience, has been going places of late. The 2014 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Referee of the Year made history as the first woman official to represent Malaysia at the FIFA women’s World Cup in Canada last year.