Whistles in babes’ mouths
A dangerous byproduct to Sepp Blatter’s insistence that all Women’s World Cup clashes be officiated by women could be seen at least twice during the first round.
Hanna Ljungberg’s World Cup came to a close when she was taken down by a Ghanian defender six minutes in. The Swedish striker suffered torn knee ligaments.
Mia Hamm’s might have ended prematurely, too. Four times Nigerian defenders took her down from behind; her 51st-minute departure came after an opponent tried to put a foot through her chest.
None of these infractions resulted in cards of any color, leaving U.S. coach Tony DiCicco and his Swedish counterpart, Marika Domanski Lyfors, seeing red.
Their colleagues haven’t been happy, either: Too many harsh fouls unrewarded, just enough blown calls to disturb. Blame inexperience, a quality that defines the pool of female referees, something that can be overcome only by field work.
Is the World Cup the best place to gain the experience?
“There are going to be some very good ones, but there are going to be some who are not ready to referee at a world-class level,” U.S. coach Tony DiCicco told the Los Angeles Times before the tournament. “And I don’t think it’s fair to the players. … We need the best officials here and not just the best female officials.”
Some of the women are superb referees, such as Canada’s Sonia Denoncourt ù termed by FIFA the only woman capable of handling the opener ù and Finn Katriina Elovirta, who has received acclaim for her performance. But how much top-flight action will a female referee from Colombia or Senegal have seen?
“One cannot say that because a referee is coming from a country where football is not at the highest possible level that a referee from that country is not of a high level,” Blatter said earlier this year. “It is not only a matter of experience, but of talent.”
But, he added: “There is a long way to go to bring women referees to the high international level where women’s football is already at.”
That seemed apparent when the Americans and Nigerians battled in Chicago. Swiss referee Nicole Mouidi-Petignat, one of the Cup’s better officials, handed out just two yellow cards when a few reds might have been warranted.
“I got [Mia] out of there before she got injured,” DiCicco said afterward. “The referee wasn’t protecting her; she wasn’t protecting anybody. … For whatever reason, the game was allowed to be played with the type of fouls that have basically been banned by FIFA.”
Denoncourt was in charge of the Sweden-Ghana game, in which two Africans were cautioned.
“Soccer is a contact sport,” said Ghana coach E.K. Afranie, whose team picked up nine yellow and two red cards in three games. “The male game is very physical. I do not know why the least bit of contact in the women’s game attracts a card.”
DiCicco says he’s largely pleased with the officiating. “From what I’ve seen,” he said, “I think the refereeing has been pretty solid, and I hope it continues that way.”
The practice of using only women officials will be reviewed after the tournament, FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said. It could continue at next year’s Olympics and at the 2003 World Cup.
“Certainly if they say overall it was a positive experience, then that’s the route they would likely go down in the future,” Cooper said. “There would be no reason not to do it.”
Has it been, overall, a positive experience?
“Considering the unavoidably limited experience of many of the women officials,” he says, “on the whole they’ve performed very well.”
by Soccer America Senior Editor Scott French