FA celebrate women's referee growth success

The Football Association has announced a 72% growth in the number of women referees since 2016. There are now 2,146 qualified female officials in the country. 

Before the suspension of the current season due to the coronavirus crisis, 63% of matches in the Women's Super League were refereed by women and 55% in the Women's Championship - a significant increase on previous campaigns.

“We needed to treat refereeing in the women’s game as different to the men’s,” said FA women’s professional game refereeing manager, Joanna Stimpson.

“The game is played differently, the players behave differently and the environment is different," she added. “The creation of the newly-created ‘women’s game referee pathway’ is a game changer for our long-term progress."

The FA now has four female referees and a further five assistant referees on FIFA's list of match officials.

Stimpson added: “Our work over the past four seasons has built strong foundations and I believe there’s never been a better time to be a referee, especially a female referee.”