Pioneering referee aims to keep officials up with women’s game’s rise

We are one year on from the Football Assocation transferring responsibility for Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship match officials to the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). There is still no timeframe for the full professionalisation of referees operating in the top two tiers of the women’s game, despite a clamouring for improvement, but the passionate and pioneering referee Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb is leading the push.

Having begun refereeing in the Frauen Bundesliga in 1999, the 43-year-old German became the first woman to referee in the men’s Bundesliga in the 2017-18 season. Now she oversees officiating in England.

She says: “The English competition is one of the strongest in the world and it definitely attracted me to this job as well as Kelly Simmons [the FA’s head of the women’s professional game] and Mike Riley [general manager of the PGMOL], who have been very convincing about the structures and investment they are willing to put in place and the future picture that they shared with me.

“If that had not happened, I probably would have stayed somewhere else. So, it’s not only the dedication that they have shown, it’s the willingness for change which attracted me.”

Change is needed. With games now broadcast across BBC Sport, Sky Sports and the FA Player, refereeing in the women’s game is under increased scrutiny. The game is growing but the development of officiating has not kept pace.

“The game has developed so much in recent years,” Steinhaus-Webb says. “I’m not surprised by where it is and I’m not surprised by the coverage and the content because it’s exciting, it’s thrilling.”.

“But I think we have invested so much in the players, in the coaches, in the venues, and referees have not