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Stephanie Frappart He will direct the Europa League match between Granada and Omonia Nicosia this Thursday. The referee thus continues her progression in the elite of men’s football with no other incidents than to point out that she is still one of the few collegiate members who can practice her profession in the highest category of the beautiful game.
There were many before her who tried it, with more or less success. The ABC newspaper includes a first referee, hockey, yes, in 1936. «Tomorrow, the 18th, there will be a tribute to María Bartolozzi, first female hockey referee in our region. It is not necessary to highlight the figure of María Bartolozzi, so well known in the hockey fields; But it should be remembered that, in addition to having played for several seasons in the Athletic women’s team, with which she has been champion of Spain three times in a row, she was selected for several interregional and international matches, and lately for the Berlin tournament.
It will not be until the 1960s when the first women to act as judges in football begin to appear, although not officially. In 1962 ABC reflects a soccer match of two women’s teams whose referee trio was also made up of women. “The referee and linesmen were also women, as were the doctors, masseurs, trainers and carers. Although the celebration of the match was not announced, it is estimated that it was witnessed by more than six thousand people. The game went on with great enthusiasm. The single women protested against the performance of the referee, who was a married woman and who punished the single women with two “penalties”.
While in Spain women had limited sports practice, around the world referee positions began to have an impact on the pages of ABC. The October 27, 1962, the first football collegiate, English on this occasion. This is what the newspaper highlights under the heading “An Englishwoman, a soccer referee”: “When Margaret SpinksThe twenty-three-year-old ranked number one in a referee qualification exam, the Football Association, in general, experienced an unpleasant surprise, since never, in the history of this sport, had such a case occurred. However, today Margaret Spinks stated that she did not want to referee any official match, and that if she had obtained the title it was due to her desire to “assure the disciples of her young club that she knew the rules of football in all its details.” Margaret Spinks scored 84 points out of 100 on the exam, an “exceptionally high standard,” according to officials from the Football Association. ” And in 1963, “a young Czechoslovakian, the only female soccer referee in Europe”: “During weekdays, young people whistle Sylvia Gregrova, but on Sundays the opposite happens, since it is Sylvia who whistles to young people of the opposite sex. Young Sylvia – seventeen years old and very beautiful – is a soccer referee and, according to the Czechoslovakian news agency “Ceteka”, the only female referee in Europe.
News also came from Japan that women wanted to whistle on the playing fields: «At her well-turned-sixteen, the lovely little Japanese girl Yoko Murakoshi He has discovered his true vocation: that of soccer referee. The girl, who is a high school student and coach of a children’s team, thinks that a woman can play refereeing as well as a man. Yoko has submitted the corresponding request to the Japan Football Federation, which has replied that there are no problems, but that due to her young age she will have to wait ”, the newspaper highlights on August 25, 1970. There will also be referees in Brazil, as indicated by the news item “A Brazilian will direct first division games in Buenos Aires”, dated February 6, 1974.
In that decade of the 70, ABC will give an account of the figure of Darlene May, “The first woman to referee an international men’s basketball match.”
Already in Spain, and in the 80s, the arbitrators began to vindicate themselves. At least everything that left them. On February 23, 1986 he dedicated a photograph and a few lines to Rocio Alvarez, «BUP student and passionate about football, as you can imagine, she is the first female referee in Spain. Daughter of first division referee Álvarez Margüenda, Rocío is determined to ensure that female participation in this modality is increasing and confesses that the presence of the “weaker sex” on the football field could positively contribute to ending violence in the sport”.
Starting in the 90s, the news about female referees grew and grew as a consequence of the steps taken towards the incorporation of women into these positions. The newspaper features Maria Jose Alcantara that “she was the first female referee to have called a national category match. It was yesterday at the Utiel-Mutxamel meeting, of the sixth group of the Third Division, that ended with the initial tie to zero, although a penalty was awarded for the home team that was not transformed.
Two months later, Alcántara would appear in the sports pages of the newspaper for being “The first Spanish to become a FIFA referee”. «This woman from Tenerife, attached to the Valencian school, is the first Spanish woman to be part of the International Federation of Associated Football. He is 29 years old and this season he has directed seven games in the National Third Division. Expect to whistle male category matches. Her name is María José Alcántara Negrín. And at that time, the referee claims that “the most important thing is that female refereeing ceases to be current.”
In recent years, finally, the (timid) take off with no turning back. In 1999, Nelly Viennot she was the first woman to act as a linesman in a Champions League match; Molde – Real Madrid. “Viennot, 37, has already appeared at other major events. He did so during the final phase of the 1996 Olympic Games and, in addition, he regularly directs matches in the French First Division of football. It won’t be the first. Last September, Wendy Toms became the first female referee to lead a professional match. He whistled the duel between Kidderminster Harriers against Nuneaton Borough, from the English Fourth Division, “says ABC. The newspaper also reports that in the UEFA Cup another woman, the French Ghislaine Peron-Labbe is part of the refereeing quartet.
French are also the sisters Julie and Charlotte Bonaventura, who have served as judges in the highest level handball matches for years. Back in Spain, Alhambra Nievas is an institution on the rugby planet. Elected best referee in the world in 2016.
In Spain, the women’s soccer league also opted for women, and every week female referee trios are those who impart justice in the Primera Iberdrola. And in the last two years, finally, the men’s league also has female protagonists with flags and whistles. Marta Huerta de Aza or Guadalupe Porras are good examples that grooming is independent of sex.
In Europe, as already indicated above, they also knew how to see it since the 80s. Already in the 21st century, Nicole Petignat he led UEFA Cup qualifying matches between 2004 and 2009. In 2020, Stephanie Frappart continues to lead the world’s women referees, on the biggest stage possible: the European men’s soccer competition.
It will be Frappart who will direct the Europa League match between Granada and Omonia de Nicosia, although she is already a veteran in these struggles, as Leicester-Zorya, Djurgarden-Europa and the European Super Cup between Liverpool and Chelsea have whistled, on August 14, 2019.
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