There are no referees at the Euro Cup held in Germany. Not a single vestige or remnant of the six – three main players between 36 and three assistants between 69 – who whistled at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a historic milestone since the first edition of the World Cup in 1930. Of the hundred referees — 19 principals, including an Argentine, Facundo Tello, due to a cooperation agreement between UEFA and the South American Football Confederation, assistants and VAR teams to direct the 51 matches of the Euro Cup, none of them are women. According to ACE, a situation that has generated “discomfort and surprise” among those most responsible for arbitration. An assignment that depends on UEFA. “The selection of the 18 referees has been based exclusively on their quality as referees and these are the ones chosen,” UEFA sources explained to EL PAÍS. “I am very happy with the referees we have chosen. They are the best in the world. This list is at a better level than even four years ago, and we are very happy and confident with it. We have only followed one criterion: quality. “We have chosen the best referees in Europe, without any restrictions,” said UEFA referee director Roberto Rosetti.
“I didn’t have that information and I don’t have a clear opinion. I don’t know how they will choose the referees, I imagine it will be due to the level beyond the male or female gender. Since I don’t know, I can’t give an opinion,” explained Martín Zubimendi, a national team player, when asked about the lack of presence of female referees in the Euro Cup. According to a study published by FIFA in 2023, there are 66,125 registered female referees, which represents 9% of the total (731,500 referees). Among them, pioneers who have whistled in men’s competitions. In the World Cup, where the designation depends on FIFA, a step forward was taken. Three women led meetings: Yoshimi Yamashita (Japan), Stéphanie Frappart (France) and Salima Mukansanga (Rwanda). And three others were attendees: Neuza Back (Brazil), Karen Díaz Medina (Mexico) and Kathryn Nesbbit (United States).
“As always, the criterion we have used is quality above all. (…) In this way, we clearly emphasize that what counts for us is quality, not gender,” shared the president of the FIFA referee commission, Pierluigi Collina, at that time. And he added: “I hope that in the future selection for important men’s competitions will be perceived as something normal and not as something sensational.” At that time, Yamashita also shared in an interview with Associated Press the difference he saw between the men’s and women’s games: “It’s not the speed of the ball. It’s just the speed of the game. For me, this means I have to make decisions faster.”
The absence of Frappart, elected the best referee in the world by the IFFHS from 2019 to 2023, uninterrupted, stands out. She is a pioneer of refereeing who in 2019 rose to be the first woman to referee in Ligue 1, and she also refereed the men’s European Super Cup final in 2019 between Liverpool and Chelsea. “She has shown over the years that she is one of the best referees, not only in Europe, but in the entire world,” Rosetti said at the time. A year later, she directed a Champions League duel in the group stage between Juventus and Dinamo kyiv. “The designation made many headlines around the world. For UEFA it was, as always, a decision based on Frappart’s reputation as one of the best referees in Europe,” the European organization then revealed its bet and decision in an information on its website.
The Frenchwoman made history when she whistled in Qatar in the match between Costa Rica against Germany, decisive for group E classification. “Stéphanie has been at the highest level for years. For us there are no men and women, but official referees. I have told her: ‘You are not here to fill the female quota.’ “She is here because she is a FIFA referee,” Collina confessed at the time.
There are not many female names in the refereeing of the major European men’s leagues. But there are more and more. Last December, Rebecca Welch became the first woman to officiate an official Premier League match on Boxing Day, a match between Fulham and Burnley. Previously, Bibiana Steinhays was also the first to referee a match in the Bundesliga, between Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen in September 2017. And in Serie A, in 2022, Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi was the first to whistle in the league Italian. Also the Ukrainian Kateryna Monzul whistled matches in the group stage of the Nations League and the Europa League, and other assistants have participated in top-level men’s matches, such as the Greek Chrysoula Kourompyla, the English Sian Maassey-Ellis, or the Spanish Guadalupe Porras Ayuso, first assistant referee in Primera.
“Appointments are made on merit and these women deserve praise for their hard work and dedication that has brought them to this level. (…) UEFA has worked hard in recent years to develop male and female referees alike across Europe and what we are seeing now is evidence that this approach is working,” Rosetti shared four years ago. “I think a lot of progress has been made. We are at a very good level. A week ago, in a UEFA course they told me that we were doing things well. I left calmly. Obviously, you have to keep working,” said Yolanda Parga, responsible for women’s refereeing in the Technical Committee of Referees, in an interview with Relief last November.
UEFA highlighted in 2020 that since 2013 female referees “have been joining their male counterparts in UEFA’s summer and winter refereeing courses, elite referee meetings, as well as newcomers to the FIFA international list. ”. However, in the Euro Cup, they are not present.
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