In her old day job as an analytical chemist, Kathryn Nesbitt studied brain chemicals in an effort to learn how that organ worked. Trying to understand the origins of rational thought did her little good in her side job as a soccer official, however, because with FIFA rational thought has long been an oxymoron.
That might be changing.
For more than a century, FIFA, soccer's global governing body, banned women from refereeing men's matches, a policy that began to ease after the Bundesliga, the English Premier League, MLS and other domestic leagues allowed females to officiate their games, and they proved more than equal to the task. So two years ago, FIFA showed signs it, too, was becoming more enlightened when it put a woman, Brazilian Edina Alves, in charge of the club World Cup final.
