History was made last night

grenache

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/10022010/58/championship-first-female-referee-takes-charge.html

Amy Fearn has become the first woman to referee a league match by taking charge for the final 20 minutes of Coventry's 1-0 home win over Nottingham Forest in the Championship.

Original referee Tony Bates collapsed with a calf strain in the 71st minute and called assistant Fearn into action after deciding he was unable to continue.

The final 12 minutes of the match passed without incident despite there being six minutes of injury time added on.

What are your views on female officials in the professional game? Personally i think its a change for the good. Players today are far more likely to repsect female refs/assistants than male ones. Lets face it, the standard of referring isn't very good in the game today, perhaps the introduction of ladies can help improve it.

Jazzy

john terry is gonna have to take a different approach and not shout at them and intimidate them....

ooohhh mr lover lover...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZs9IiXXmA

CHD

Fairly obsessed with Terry aren't ya Jazzy.

Helix

cant do any worse than some of the blokes in the job tbh

Xavi6

[Blatter]Needs shorter shorts tbh[/Blatter]

Jazzy

CHD wrote: »

Fairly obsessed with Terry aren't ya Jazzy.

JimsAlterEgo

can't be any worse than some of the muppetts there already, standard seems to have dropped big time this season.

Jordonvito

cant be any worse than whats out there, i suppose i might aswell get this part over with while im at it . . . . .who let her escape from the kitchen?

PDN

Will this be the end of the offside rule?

leninbenjamin

The most important historical event last night was Arsene's 300th win in the Premier League.

Nalz

leninbenjamin wrote: »

The most important historical event last night was Arsene's 300th win in the Premier League.

Honestly, it wasn't

mike65

They could have a postive effect regarding players boorish behaviour on the pitch.

Mars Bar

Love it! Fair play to her!

I always dreamed when I was a kid that I'd be the first girl to play in the PL!:p

dreamers75

Hilda will be gutted.

Mitch Connor

PDN wrote: »

Will this be the end of the offside rule?

honestly, who the hell CAN explain it now?

I know the basics, but the active/inactive interpretation is something i still can't get my head round, not 100%.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

Need to be hawter..

JPA

Commandant: Hmm. In our 185 years, we have never had a female cadet.
But that seems to be the way the wind is blowing these
days. After all, we have female singers, female motorists
... Welcome aboard.

.

Pro. F

Female refs might be a good thing, maybe players will moderate their behavior towards the officials. I wonder what will happen if players continue with the aggressive, threatening behaviour towards the ref when it's a lady.

Mitch Connor wrote: »

honestly, who the hell CAN explain it now?

I know the basics, but the active/inactive interpretation is something i still can't get my head round, not 100%.

I bet you do actually understand it Mitch, imho it's actually simpler than most people think. The problem is if you assume that it makes sense, it doesn't. It's bollix altogether. Also it isn't enforced consistently, which is a joke.

IvySlayer

As long as they understand the rules, why not. Plenty of men officiate womens matches.

~Rebel~

Players as a rule aren't the most considerate, well mannered, polite bunch, so tbh i could see behaviour getting worse if a call is made they disagree with. I could see the fact she's a woman being used in the abuse given to her as well.

The plus side though is that the ref's association would be forced to start clamping down on players disrespecting the ref, regardless whether male or female, if there was a rise in bad behaviour.

As for the female ref thing itself, if they're good enough, they're good enough, I don't particularly care about their anatomical structure.

JPA

~Rebel~ wrote: »

As for the female ref thing itself, if they're good enough, they're good enough, I don't particularly care about their anatomical structure.

I do. she looks like Ross Noble.

bobbysands81

It shouldn't matter what sex a referee is as long as they can do the job properly.

Saint_Mel

dreamers75 wrote: »

Hilda will be gutted.

Hilda has retired (thank feck)

daithijjj

I fear my imagination will not reflect reality........*sigh*

GLaDOS

If they can do the job, they can do the job. See women lines..people in LOI from time to time. No particular complaints come to mind

Galvasean

Pro. F wrote: »

I wonder what will happen if players continue with the aggressive, threatening behaviour towards the ref when it's a lady.

Sexual harassment suits? I joke now but....

Gillington

bobbysands81 wrote: »

It shouldn't matter what sex a referee is as long as they can do the job properly.

Yeah it shouldnt matter if they are male or female,black or white or even Swedish as long as they got the job done properly.

Oh wait....

KittyeeTrix

I don't get why the attitude of some of the players should have to change just because the official is female......
TBH, it's goddamn insulting for me to realise that in this day and age that some blokes think my ears are extra sensitive or I would be more intimidated than them by some footballer:eek:

Honestly women are a lot tougher than ye give us credit for.....
Some of us can actually laugh at ourselves but don't want to be treated like fooking delicate things prone to fainting fits at the drop of a bad word!!!!!

The_Hustler

Some of you

Vurnon San Benito

They do this in Germany and it seems to work.
Needless to say they'll come under huge scrutiny but it's certainly worth a shot.
Well done gal

Gillington

Doocey wrote: »

They do this in Germany and it seems to work.
Needless to say they'll come under huge scrutiny but it's certainly worth a shot.
Well done gal

Another thing they do in Germany is,if a player is thought to have dived,if the ref cant make a decisionor was unsure,they ask the player if he dived or not,if he says yes he's booked ar cautioned,if he says no and is found to have been lying he gets a 3 match ban.

Off topic I know but just got reminded there!

Mr. Presentable

It's a fairly local kind of history,tbh, there have been women referees for many years at the top level in other countries. I note the article fails to mention that, and indeed implies that this is the first instance anywhere of a female ref at a league match. In fact she wasn't even appointed to ref the game.

Headline should read

Championship - Finally England follows the rest of the world by appointing female official..

Carcharodon

Reminds of a game where there was a female linesman (lineswoman) and she gave a bad call,my friend shouted at her 'Is it your time of the month or something' he was duly sent off by the ref.
It was more funny than anything else because of how stupid it was, it was just a face palm.

major bill

women refs eh hmmmm would love to hear fergie's rants in the future if it became the norm in the premiership.

There's a lineswoman in the LOI who one time called offside from a throw in:D

Pinturicchio

It's not like this is the first ever female ref. She's just the first in England.

dreamers75

major bill wrote: »

There's a lineswoman in the LOI who one time called offside from a throw in:D

Rhona .......rawr.........hot

mayordenis

major bill wrote: »

women refs eh hmmmm would love to hear fergie's rants in the future if it became the norm in the premiership.

There's a lineswoman in the LOI who one time called offside from a throw in:D

I've seen a male linesman in the EPL do the same when the ball was thrown to Robbie Fowler.

CHD

Jazzy wrote: »

Don't! Its funny how much you care about him

Jazzy

CHD wrote: »

Don't! Its funny how much you care about him

take your owning on the chin

pajodublin

She better watch out

Dave!

*shudder*

No thanks

She looks like yer one with the ronnie in Intermission

Spiritoftheseventies

to add. Hilda McDermott refereed a league of Ireland match a few seasons ago.