Women’s Football

Having toyed with the thought of Womens, youth or men’s football. I have deciders that I would prefer to officiate on the women’s game (I have previously been quite involved via coaching etc, and has been something I have been in particular seeing the development over the last few seasons). Is there any advice that people who work mainly in the women’s game. I’ve decided to not go for the 4W-3W promotion (although am I considered a 4W only having recently qualifying?) as the standard/requirements seems quite high and having only qualified this year and refereeing less that 20 games I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself too early.

Any advise anyone could offer is greatly appreciated! (Differences tho the men’s game, expectations etc.)

I can’t offer UK-specific advice, but generally… from refereeing top level girls and higher level womens football and futsal… don’t be trigger happy. There can be long passages with little or no contact, and it becomes very tempting to interfere - either by whistling trifling fouls, being too busy, unexpected instructions etc.

Be tidy and attentive. Be compact and precise. And brief your ARs to concentrate. It can be difficult to referee when very little happens in a match except one or two potentially match-changing KMIs.

My trio watched a ref in the early match last night. Lower level womens. He destroyed the match with trifling fouls and then the most trifling penalty that no one expected.

And enjoy! Good luck.

Hey! Great decision and one I’ve made too! I’m three seasons in and just about to start my first year as 3W, definitely don’t recommend going for it right away so you’re making the right choice. Consider the 7-6 pathway for now as you can use women’s games and you’ll get great feedback.

Leagues start at county level almost everywhere and as a 4W you can also cover the regional leagues for a higher standard (although 3W promotion candidates may take priority).

Main differences I’ve found are: women talk to you less and want to be talked to less generally, less agro, a more technical game but slower so the fouls you see will differ, you will be dealing with jewellery issues most weeks, you get paid less (usually)

I deal with lower level womens football and I echo a lot of what @santa sangria says. The game can go quite a while without a foul, and players expect fouls for not a whole lot of contact.

So you need to find a balance that sits right with you and just be consistent.

My example is a team I middled had an extremely strong and physical forward. She was very handsy. Something you expect in the men's game, but the defenders got very upset every time they received a strong arm across the chest, or a very robust shoulder to shoulder. It became quite difficult to referee, as the players were starting to lose faith in me, as they felt the physicality was too high (the bench was being very vocal about this also), but for me, the striker was doing absolutely nothing wrong.

OnlyUseMeWhistle said:

Hey! Great decision and one I’ve made too! I’m three seasons in and just about to start my first year as 3W, definitely don’t recommend going for it right away so you’re making the right choice. Consider the 7-6 pathway for now as you can use women’s games and you’ll get great feedback.

Leagues start at county level almost everywhere and as a 4W you can also cover the regional leagues for a higher standard (although 3W promotion candidates may take priority).

Main differences I’ve found are: women talk to you less and want to be talked to less generally, less agro, a more technical game but slower so the fouls you see will differ, you will be dealing with jewellery issues most weeks, you get paid less (usually)

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I have signed up to a local county league after my local regional league said I could only middle if I was on the promotion pathway. Thank you for the advice! Looking forward to getting started ️

santa sangria said:

don’t be trigger happy. There can be long passages with little or no contact, and it becomes very tempting to interfere - either by whistling trifling fouls, being too busy, unexpected instructions etc.

Be tidy and attentive. Be compact and precise. And brief your ARs to concentrate.

And enjoy! Good luck.

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The above is excellent advice.

kje2198 said:

Having toyed with the thought of Womens, youth or men’s football. I have deciders that I would prefer to officiate on the women’s game (I have previously been quite involved via coaching etc, and has been something I have been in particular seeing the development over the last few seasons). Is there any advice that people who work mainly in the women’s game. I’ve decided to not go for the 4W-3W promotion (although am I considered a 4W only having recently qualifying?) as the standard/requirements seems quite high and having only qualified this year and refereeing less that 20 games I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself too early.

Any advise anyone could offer is greatly appreciated! (Differences tho the men’s game, expectations etc.)

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A couple of things expectation wise to note -

When you first start out at 4W doing your local women's league, you'll notice a lot of the players don't take it too seriously and are just happy to be playing, or maybe they're new to football and still finding their feet. This means the ones at that level who take it seriously really stand out and won't be afraid to get in your ear. They're a minority though and generally its a really nice level to ref at and a great introduction to reffing Women's football.

The second thing, as noted above, is the difference in expectations around fouls. Something you have to adjust to early on is the amount of fouls that you would barely consider a foul in the mens game, that are expected to be given in the womens game. There's certainly a level of 'protection' the players expect in comparison to mens. Its takes some getting used to but as someone else rightly pointed out, consistency is best here.

Good luck and enjoy! Womens football brings some fantastic opportunities with it and is a great pathway to go down.