Rebecca Welch is no stranger to being first. Two years ago, she became the first female referee in the EFL when she officiated a League Two clash between Harrogate and Port Vale. The first woman to oversee a Championship match, she also became the first woman to act as fourth official in a Premier League game (Manchester United’s 1-0 away win over Fulham last month).
On Saturday, Welch returns to Craven Cottage, where she will take charge when Fulham host Burnley. In doing so, she will become – you guessed it – the first woman to oversee a Premier League fixture.
It’s been a fast rise for Welch, 40, who took up the whistle in 2010 when working as an NHS administrator, before going full-time in 2019. A former amateur player (“not very good”, she once admitted in a promotional video), Welch trained through the Football Association’s north-east officiating pathway.
Rising through university matches and Sunday League, she has since brandished cards and awarded free-kicks in the Women’s Super League, as well as in two Women’s FA Cup finals. She considers running out at Wembley the highlight of her career – so far.
This summer, after being selected as part of Uefa’s 28-member elite referees cohort, Welch was responsible for three matches at the Women’s World Cup. Her move into the men’s game (she has also refereed a third-round men’s FA Cup fixture), has been widely met with plaudits, including by a number of top-flight managers.
Pep Guardiola said Welch’s appointment was “an excellent idea; more than welcome. Hopefully in the future there will be more [female referees]”. Welch hails from Tyne and Wear and the Newcastle manager, Eddie Howe, called it “a great moment”, while Crystal Palace’s Roy Hodgson referred to her as a “trailblazer”.
Chelsea’s Mauricio Pochettino, a former manager of Paris Saint-Germain, said he was “so happy” that the Premier League was following Ligue 1 in appointing a female referee, citing the experienced French official Stéphanie Frappart as a “very good” official. Pochettino’s London rival Mikel Arteta wished Welch “all the best”, with the Arsenal manager adding: “What women’s football has done and the diversity that we have is incredibly positive … and something that was needed.”
And his Burnley counterpart Vincent Kompany, whose team will be at the mercy of Welch on Saturday, also offered support. “It’s a milestone,” Kompany said in his pre-match press conference, adding that he didn’t think his players would treat Welch any differently because of her gender.
Welch isn’t the only woman making her mark in the men’s game, whether in the UK or farther afield. More than 200 female referees and assistant referees have officiated in the men’s game worldwide. At last year’s men’s World Cup, there were six female officials, including Frappart.
In October, days after the officiating of the English men’s game was under renewed scrutiny after the farcical VAR decision to disallow a clearly onside Liverpool goal against Tottenham, the former railway worker Kirsty Dowle was clapped off the pitch after taking charge of a fifth-tier match between Southend United and Oxford City, with fans on social media calling her performance a “referring masterclass”.
Sian Massey-Ellis, an experienced official, has also frequently been hailed for her no-nonsense performances. But the infamous 2011 incident in which the Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys were sacked for making misogynistic comments about her is testament to the work still to be done, even when, more than a decade on, the women’s game has boomed in popularity – in no small part thanks to the triumphs of the Lionesses and this week’s BBC Spoty winner, Mary Earps.
Welch’s appointment is the latest example of the Premier League’s attempts to diversify its officiating staff. In the week that Welch makes her debut, Sam Allison will become the first Black referee in the top tier in 15 years, after Uriah Rennie. Both are part of PGMOL’s elite referee development plan, which fast-tracks underrepresented talent in the game.
Howard Webb, head of PGMOL, this week called Welch’s appointment “significant” and said it was evidence that the pathway was proving successful.
It makes sense, when numbers of grassroots officials are declining – influenced, according to Webb, and possibly evident to even the most casual of observers, by abusive behaviour from coaching staff, players and fans – that the PGMOL would look at a wider pool of talent to recruit from.
And the mere act of diversifying officials, the sports broadcaster Sanny Rudravajhala tells the Guardian, may have the welcome effect of lessening the abuse. Rudravajhala, who went to a recent PGMOL meeting where he chatted to up-and-coming officials, including the 30-year-old Samuel Barrott, says: “I’m an ex-teacher … and the days of being an aloof disciplinarian … it doesn’t work. I think it’s a bit like that with refereeing.
“One hundred per cent they’re there because they’re good, based on abilities,” Rudravajhala says of Welch and Allison. “But you want to humanise refs. Otherwise they become an ‘other’ and end up getting analysed incessantly and slagged off on social media.”
Unfortunately, most fans won’t be able to watch Welch oversee the biggest game of her life, given the match kicks off at 3pm, during the televisual blackout. Rudravajhala predicts that the moment will be marked on the BBC’s Match of the Day in “an understated way”.
“The referee never wants to be the story. As soon as she blows that first whistle, it’ll be all about the 22 players on the pitch.”
