RUNNING THE LINE
WHILE THE Godfather of Soul, James Brown, may have bellowed out ‘It’s A Man’s World’ in his distinctively raspy tone, thankfully Michelle O’Neill wasn’t listening too intently, and with single-minded determination she has forged an impressive career in what little more than a decade ago would have been considered a testosterone-filled domain.
Of course, it would be foolhardy to believe that some of the longheld prejudices don’t remain, but as an official who operates at the top level of the game, O’Neill says things are certainly moving in the right direction and football is gradually becoming a more inclusive family.
However, it was far from a level playing field when O’Neill, who works as a freelance swimming instructor in the Ferrycarrig Hotel, first tipped her toes into the refereeing pool.
Having cut her teeth at schoolgirls, schoolboys and youths level, she moved into refereeing men’s matches and it was a whole different ball game, with some struggling to accept a woman as an authority figure.
‘It was a matter of gaining respect. A good few of the men didn’t take to me very kindly, but I just had to do the talking through my cards and referee the game that was in front of me.
‘If anyone stepped over the line I’d send them off. I wouldn’t tolerate the abuse and I’d say I’m not standing for that. Being a woman in a man’s league was a barrier back then and now it’s pure respect from everybody. You do have to go out and earn your respect. It was difficult at the start but I persevered because I loved it too much to give up,’ she said.
Her interest in refereeing spawned from her playing days, which began with Enniscorthy United, before moving to a strong Adamstown outfit, where picking up medals became commonplace.
The talented striker, who also shone brightly for the county squad for a number of years, believed that as female players were putting in the same effort as their male counterparts, they deserved a fair crack of the whip.
‘In the women’s league we didn’t have the best of officials and it always frustrated me. I always said when I finished playing I’m going to become an official. I was thinking about it but on one of my last games with the county squad, Mark Hogan, who was the referees’ Chairman at the time, approached me after the match and said there was a course the following week and that he thought I should do it.’
The Enniscorthy native, who did her refereeing beginner’s course in 2008, is certainly no stranger to officiating at the highest level, having become the first Irish woman to be selected for a FIFA Women’s World Cup when travelling to Canada in 2015, before getting the nod for the UEFA Women’s European Championships in the Netherlands last year, as well as running the line for important Women’s Champions League ties. While she operates as a referee in the Continental Tyres Women’s National League on home soil, she specialises as an assistant referee in the domestic men’s league as well as on the international stage and says they are entirely different disciplines.
‘I’m delighted to be able to referee in the Women’s National League and stay in touch with the refereeing side because it’s so different. When you specialise in assistant refereeing you train differently,’ she said.
O’Neill says, no different to players plying their trade at the highest level, officials have to be at peak fitness at all times. They also live for the big tournaments and marquee games and it’s a sense of great pride to be recognised on the world stage.
‘To get the big tournaments is absolutely amazing and the height of your career. You set goals from year to year. To be selected for the prestigious events is just such an honour.
‘Being from a small place like Wexford and getting selected for the World Cup is huge. A lot of people wouldn’t even know because the average person mightn’t take much notice of officials, but referees have to put in so much dedication as well. It was a massive honour to be the first Irish woman to be selected for a World Cup when I went to Canada,’ she said.
O’Neill, who also officiated at the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea in 2016 and will again be on duty at the tournament this year in France, says the meticulous preparations for major events begin years in advance.
‘My main goal is the World Cup next year. I’ve been training for that since Canada. It’s the very same as athletes in the Olympics, we start our preparations the day we come home from the last one. It’s all geared around that,’ she said.
O’Neill through sheer dedication and unwavering focus has carved out a glowing reputation, and her assured performances in the white heat of match day has seen her rise to the upper echelons of her profession, although it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the 39-year-old and she’s delighted to be part of the giant strides that are being made in the women’s game.
‘The barriers we had were tough, and I’m only talking ten years ago. It’s totally changed now, we have the Women’s National League and we have the league in Wexford which is strengthening.
‘A lot of the Irish players are now coming back home to play, which also strengthens the league. If you have a strong league there’s more demand for female officials.
‘The demand is there, we just need to get more women involved and have a big push in developing more female officials. The pathway is just amazing; if you’re dedicated and willing to put in the work the world is there for you,’ she said.
‘In Germany we have our number one ranked female official officiating in the Bundesliga. The Premier League in England is close to having a first official in the middle as well. Sian Massey is the number one assistant referee over there and she’s in the Premier League. That’s the same as me here in the Premier Division in the League of Ireland. We’re on the up, developing more and more strong officials. If that’s not an incentive for young people to get involved, what is?’
O’Neill would dearly love to see more local women follow in her footsteps and firmly believes that there’s a raft of opportunities for females should they choose to take up refereeing.
‘At the moment there’s two female officials in the Wexford League and when I’m refereeing in the Women’s National League they’re called up to officiate beside me as assistant referees.
‘One of these girls only did her beginner’s course a year ago and she has developed all the way through in a year to do top level matches.
‘It would be great if we could get more and more female officials. The games are there. You can go on to do the FAI School of Excellence for up and coming officials and they develop them over two years. From there you can be selected for the panel of elite referees in Ireland. That’s the pathway that’s there.
‘Alternatively, you could also go on the other scale of things and just officiate in the women’s league in Wexford, schoolgirls or schoolboys and have a pathway there and get your cup finals. That’s also a great honour. There’s so many routes you can take. It’s just an amazing reward to be able to go out and referee a match and walk off a pitch and be satisfied with how you handled the game,’ she said.
Anybody who attends matches at all levels with any sort of regularity is well aware that being an official is a thankless task given the amount of abuse and vitriol that’s thrown in their direction, and O’Neill believes it can be even more difficult for a female.
‘The abuse is fizzling out a bit but at the start it was like “what am I up against today, what am I going to hear today?”. Absolutely everything and anything would be said, but when I’m in the game I don’t hear it because I’m so focused on my task and sometimes after the game somebody would say to you, “Jesus the crowd was hard against you tonight”, and I wouldn’t have heard what they said.
‘Now they’re just starting to see me as an official and their mentality is changing. It is tough though and sometimes it still happens.
‘A few weeks ago in Bray, for example, there was a lot of really abusive chants, but the grounds officials threw them out. They dealt with it. We still have to prove ourselves as women in the men’s game. We’re still being scrutinised more than the male officials. Our level of expectation is higher, but we work harder towards it,’ she said.
That hard work has obviously paid off for O’Neill and she’s certainly going to make the most of the time she has left officiating at the top level of the game.
‘Once you pass the required fitness test for whatever league you’re in you can keep going, but your refereeing career can be such a short time at the highest level. In FIFA tournaments it’s normally 45 so I’ve about five more years to go at the highest level.
‘At the end of the day we’re there to referee to the best of our ability and to referee what we see. To get all the big decisions right is our main goal. There’s a big campaign to respect the referee. That’s all we ask for, respect the referee and respect the decisions,’ she said.
Getting to see parts of the world you wouldn’t otherwise be drawn to is another perk of the job, although O’Neill does admit that she has had to find a novel way to get to see the sights.
‘It’s amazing, you go to all these different countries that you would never even have dreamed about going to. I’ve a FIFA badge for eight years and in those eight years I’ve travelled about 50 times.
‘At tournaments you might get a day off, but normally you’re just flying in, doing your match and flying out. Usually what I do to see a place is get up at 6 a.m. and go for a jog. I refereed in Kazan in Russia in the World Student Games and it was unreal, a whole new world, and Papua New Guinea, who goes there?
‘The world is out there, you just need to start somewhere and signing up for a beginner’s course is a good start,’ she said.
A good few of the men didn’t take to me very kindly, but I just had to do the talking through my cards