Something is missing from Euro 2008 football championships. Where are the female referees? A valid question, given that 552 of the 3 000 listed Fifa referees and assistants (18,4%) are now female.
In 1994 there were only four. Sonia Denoncourt, manager of Fifa’s refereeing and competitions division, was one, working at international level for 11 years — although, tellingly, not at top men’s tournaments.
She can offer no explanation for the lack of female representation at Euro 2008. ”Nothing is preventing women referees from being there,” she tells me. ”They simply haven’t been appointed.”
The Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) is responsible for choosing Euro 2008 match officials from Fifa’s lists, so I put the same question to Andre Francioli, Uefa’s man in charge of scheduling. He confirms there are no women in the tournament, but refuses to explain why.
There was a near-miss during the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany, when Fifa attempted to get a female assistant referee appointed; unfortunately, she failed the fitness test.
All women who adjudicate men’s matches must meet the same requirements as a man, a process acknowledged to be fair — they do, after all, have to keep up with play. But, anecdotally, many feel fitness levels are an excuse to mask widespread opposition to women doing what is considered a ”man’s job”.
When Uruguayan striker Mario Leguizamon responded to a sending-off in a recent league match by accusing referee Silvia Reyes of being ”unsatisfied sexually”, his comments brought condemnation from other players and women’s rights’ groups, as well as his subsequent sacking.
But isn’t insulting the ref all part of the game? Do women really have a tougher time than their male counterparts? ”Definitely,” says Denoncourt. ”It’s a social thing — in some countries women in positions of authority are just not accepted.”
There are certainly candidates equipped to do the job: Bibiana Steinhaus, for instance, a 28-year-old German police officer who hit the headlines in 2007 as the first female referee to officiate a game in Germany’s professional football leagues (albeit division two). And while Fifa’s recent decision to appoint Denoncourt to head a training programme for female refs has been welcomed, even she admits: ”Football is still a man’s world.”
It seems we may have to wait some time yet for a woman to blow the whistle during a Euro championships match. —