
Uganda’s female FIFA assistant referee, Diana Mukasa has been selected to officiate in the Algarve women Cup 2012 that kicks off on February 29 in Portugal.
Algarve Cup is an annual tournament that attracts first class women footballing nations across the world. Mukasa is the first referee in east, central and southern Africa to land this invitation. Africa has had only three referees invited to this year’s tournament. The two others are centre referee Aissata Amegge from Togo and Alglago Emmanuella, an assistant referee from Ghana. Mukasa says it’s a big opportunity to her as an individual and the country at large. “I shall offer my best in order to open up more chances for such future invitations in Uganda and the rest of Africa”, said the continent’s second best ranked assistant referee.

A total of eight world class nations and four other selected teams will participate in this year’s tournament. Group A and B have the strongest ranked teams believed to be in contention to win the title. Group ‘A’ has China, Germany, Iceland and Sweden while group ‘B’ has Denmark, Norway, United States and Japan the current world Cup Champions. The group winners from ‘A’ and ‘B’ will contest the final with the runners up playing for third place and those finishing third in these two groups playing for the fifth place.
The teams in group ‘C’ that include Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Portugal and Wales will be playing tor places 7-12. The winner in this group will take on the team that finishes 4th in group ‘A’ or ‘B’ with the better record for the 7th position and the runners-up from the same group ‘C’ will play the team that comes last in group ‘A’ or ‘B’ with the worse record for the 9th position. The 3rd and 4th teams in group ‘C’ play for the eleventh place. On February 29th, World Cup champions Japan takes on Norway in an opener before America plays Denmark the same day. The tournament ends March 7th.