Earlier this season I refereed my first ever
woman’s football match. I must admit to being a little apprehensive before the day. Obviously they had had male referees before, but my style of officiating tends to involve a lot of shouting at the players. I wondered how the women would react to this and I suppose, being a little sexist, I was worried in case any of them would break into tears if I shouted at them.
I need not have worried. The game was every bit as competitive as any between two teams of men, even though they can’t head the ball as hard or kick the ball as far. Having said that, there was one beautiful goal struck from twenty five yards out. There were the inevitable late tackles, even a few expletives to deal with and one young lady who thought she was a female Roy Keane.
I’m told that women’s football is the fastest growing sport in this country and internationally. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said recently, ‘The future of football is feminine’.
I don’t know how true that is but the FA have declared their intention to have a professional woman’s league in three years time. At the moment there is only one women’s professional team in this country which is Fulham, backed by Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
There is already one professional women’s league in existence and that is in the unlikely country of America where, believe it or not, football is the number one sport for girls. There are eight teams in the league, all with names like San Diego Spirit and Philadelphia Charge. The players are ‘allocated’ to the clubs and earn between $25,000 and $125,000 pa. The first game in the league was played on 14th April this year between Washington Freedom and Bay Area CyberRays. The attendance was 34,148. How many league clubs in this country
would like to have attendances like that?
The officials were all women. In fact I understand that all the officials on the league are women. Apparently this was well planned in advance and a pool of women officials, referees and assistant referees, were trained over a period of years to be in place when the professional league was formed. The USA has no less that four referees on the FIFA women’s list.
There are of course a number of women referees in this country, most notably Wendy Toms who has officiated at the Madejski Stadium and refereed woman’s football in the Sydney Olympics. But progress does seem slow and there is a serious shortage of suitable higher level women referees. This means that if the proposed FA professional woman’s league does get under way in three years time, the majority of officials will be male. If there are any women out there who feel that they might like to take up the whistle one day, now might be a good time with the distinct possibility of a professional woman’s league on the horizon.
To start you need to pass the FA examinations on the Laws of the Game. The best way to do this is to undertake a referee’s training course.Locally these are organised by the Reading Referees’ Association on behalf of the Berks & Bucks
FA. All instructors are Licensed FA Referee Instructors.
The course being run at present is full and there is a full waiting list for the next course starting in January, so you do need to get your name down early. Of course these are open to everyone over fourteen interested in becoming a referee, whether male or female. You will find full details on the website www.readingrefs.org.uk or telephone Brian Wratten on Reading 978 2681.
Dick Sawdon Smith