Italy is the promised land of football, fans all over the world know about the Serie A stars first and last. But how to attract the attention of the audience to the lower levels of the football pyramid? On the Apennine Peninsula, they may have dripped on it. And it will probably come as no surprise that the magic ingredient is female charm.
Only twenty-three-year-old Giuliana Vigile became a new star on the regional lawns in the Serie D and Eccellenza competitions (that is, in the fourth and fifth leagues). She is not a player, but a borderline referee. And how some Italian media reportsher spells with the pennant actually attract a higher number of spectators to the matches – mainly men – than usual.
Vigile, a student of the ancient University of Bologna, has no problem showing off her physical assets, after all, it is certainly no coincidence that this casual model already has over 150,000 followers on Instagram (and she doesn’t wear it on the field miniskirt like her Argentinian colleague Agustína Loos Matrella). The stylish referees were also noticed abroad.
For example, the British website The Sun drew attention to the fact that the young Italian woman definitely does not score points only for her appearance. “She has received high scores from the Italian Referees Association (AIA) for her performance in every match since she started the job three years ago,” writes The Sun.
Italy is behind
Serie D – the fourth league – is the lowest Italian competition with a national organization, and at the same time the highest level of amateur or semi-professional football. A total of 160 clubs operate in eight divisions, the title is played for in the final superstructure between the best teams from each group. Livorno is the reigning champion.
Female referees in men’s football do not have a very long tradition in Italy. It may come as a surprise that Ferrieri Caputi was the first woman to referee an elite Serie A match only in the 2022/2023 season. “It was based on performance, nothing else,” said the head of the Italian judges at the time Alfredo Trentalanga. For comparison – Dagmar Damková she whistled for the first time in the domestic first league in October 2003.
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It took Caputi about fifteen years to work her way to the top and she faced prejudice more than once. In the spring of 2024, Italy’s top flight saw another premiere: the first match officiated entirely by women (Caputi was again the head referee of the match between Torino and Inter).
As for the attractive Internet star Vigile, who likes to publish even rather titillating private photos, she has a lot of work ahead of her on the football field. But she herself says on her Instagram account: “Pressure is a privilege.”
Maybe one day she will make it all the way to Serie A. For now, she is happy that, in addition to attendance, she is also raising awareness about a young woman sometimes faces in a harsh environment lower men’s competitions.
