Australian officials selected for FIFA Women's World Cup

Football Federation Australia is proud to congratulate Jacqui Melksham, Sarah Ho and Allyson Flynn who have been appointed as Australia’s representatives to officiate at the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011™.

Football Federation Australia is proud to congratulate Jacqui Melksham, Sarah Ho and Allyson Flynn who have been appointed as Australia-s representatives to officiate at the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011™.

Melksham (referee), Ho (assistant referee) and Flynn (assistant referee) will head to Germany for the Cup in June for the official kick-off on June 26 in Berlin (June 27 local).

51 female officials today received the exciting news that they had been selected to officiate at the FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011™.

The FIFA Referees Committee, under the chairmanship of Ángel María Villar Llona, appointed 16 referees, 32 Assistant Referees, and three referees who will serve exclusively as Fourth Officials during the competition between 26 June and 17 July.

The three Australians were selected from an initial list of more than 500 referees making Australia one of only five countries (USA, Sweden, Mexico and hosts Germany) to have three representatives on FIFA-s list of 51 official.

Brisbane based referee Melksham, who was appointed to the FIFA referees panel in 2004 and has officiated at the 2004 FIFA U19s Women-s World Cup in Thailand and 2008 FIFA U20s Women-s World Cup in Chile, is looking forward to taking the whistle in Germany after last year missing out on the AFC Women-s Asian Cup due to a last minute injury.

“I tore my plantarfascia (ligament in the foot) in the last training session before the tournament in China (AFC Women-s Asian Cup) and was forced to withdraw from the tournament,” said Melksham.

“I-ve had a little bit of bad luck in the lead up to major competitions before so I-ll definitely be preparing myself extra well for Germany.

“I am ecstatic to have been chosen for the tournament out of the 500 or more candidates and it is even more special that Sarah and Allyson will be there with me.

“It is excellent for Australia to be so well represented at the tournament and is testament to the work being done at here in Australia.

“This is the pinnacle of refereeing in our sport and every match is going to be do-or-die for the teams so it will definitely be an exciting and demanding job in the middle of the park, but one that I am really looking forward to and fulfil a dream I have had since I started refereeing at 19.”

The FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011™ will mark Sarah Ho-s second World Cup following her selection for the 2007 version in China and mark Allyson Flynn-s first selection for the tournament.