Frappart impresses on historic night
History was made at the Vodafone Park stadium in Istanbul on Wednesday night when a major European men’s final was officiated by female officials for the first time. Even better, they were widely praised for their professional performance.
Refereeing the Super Cup game between Liverpool and Chelsea game was France’s Stephanie Frappart, 36, with her compatriot Manuela Nicolosi and Ireland’s Michelle O’Neill as her assistants. The same trio had earlier officiated at the Women’s World Cup final.
The good news for the female trio was that in the immediate post-match reports they were hardly mentioned, always an encouraging sign for a referee and assistants. It usually means they have done a decent job.
Not that Frappart didn’t have some difficult moments. She was not perfect, but no referee is. Her most contentious decision was awarding Chelsea what seemed to be a rather soft penalty when goalkeeper Adrian appeared to bring down Tammy Abraham in the area. However, she was backed up by the all-male VAR crew.
Frappart and her assistants were widely praised by managers, pundits and fans alike, particularly for letting the game flow.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klop commented: “They were good, very good. There was pressure on them like hell … and did what they had to do in an intense game.” Former Chelsea star Joe Cole agreed, saying Frappart “had
a great game”.
The only two yellow cards came late in the match when she booked Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta and later Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson. Her assistants maintained high standards with correct offside calls. Many commented Frappart and her crew were better than some regular Premier League referees.
Frappart had made history in April when she refereed a regular French League One match between Amiens and Strasbourg. Her successful display in Istanbul will give considerable encouragement to other female referees.
The highest profile female official in England is Sian Massey-Ellis who has been seen regularly running the line in Premier League games since her first match on Dec 28th, 2010, when she officiated in the Sunderland v Blackpool game.
Now aged 33, Massey-Ellis has built up a reputation as a reliable official who makes few mistakes and does not succumb to crowd pressure. She was awarded the MBE in 2017 for her services to football.
Although she had not refereed a Premium League game, she believes the time is not far off when we will be seeing a female ref in the top flight. She recently told the BBC, “I think it’s coming,” but warned that “it is important that they are not pushing them just because they are female.”
Massey-Ellis has not entirely escaped controversy. Through no fault of her own she made the news on Jan 22, 2011. Before the Wolves v Liverpool clash, she was the subject of alleged sexist comments offair by SkySports commentators Richard Keys and Andy Gray.
The leaked comments, which were not broadcast, included suggestions that a female official would not understand the offside rule plus disparaging remarks about other females in football.
In the ensuing uproar Keys and Gray were sacked while MasseyEllis was withdrawn from a couple of games as the FA did not want her to be subjected to the media circus.
Later that year, in May, while running the line in a game between Cardiff City and Middlesbrough she was flattened by Cardiff defender McNaughton, but it was ruled accidental.
Since then she has avoided controversy and has become a respected Premier League official.
It was back in 2010 we witnessed the first woman to referee an English Football League match. On a cold February night, Amy Fearn, who was running the line in the Coventry v Nottingham Forest Championship match, took over the whistle when the referee limped off and could not continue.
Predictably her appearance prompted a chorus of wolf whistles and her first toot of the whistle to award a free-kick was greeted by loud cheers from the fans. After all they were witnessing history. It was only for the last 20 minutes but she did well, despite all the banter. One voice from the crowd shouted: “Haven’t you got a husband to go home to love?”
Times are changing, but female officials will still have to put up with that sort of stuff. However, they know what they are getting into. When asked what was the most important part of the job, one female ref replied “Having a thick skin”.
Fearn was also in the news in 2006 when she came under fire by the then Luton manager Mike Newell when she was running the line. Newell was furious at some of her decisions and made his feelings clear: “It’s bad enough with the incapable referees and linesmen we have, but if you start bringing in women, you have a big problem.” Newell later apologised for “ill- timed and out-oforder comments.”
One of the pioneers of female refereeing in England was Wendy Toms who in 1996 became the first woman to referee a match at Conference level (now National League). In that first match she had to put up with regular chants from the Kidderminster crowd of “you should be playing netball.”
Unfortunately for Toms, the refereeing commitments affected her domestic life. When she split up with her husband, at the divorce proceedings the court noted: “It is unusual for a husband to complain about his wife spending too much time on football.”
A final comment on the life and times of a female referee comes from the lower leagues. Sonya Homes, now retired, recalled the following incident in 1995: “I saw someone eyeing me in the pub. I asked ‘do I know you?’ He said, You should. You sent me off today.’ ”