Sunday Sit-Down with… Rebecca Welch

By Becky Hardy

Having entered into the world of professional refereeing at the comparatively ‘old’ age of 27 (she’d worked as an administrator in the NHS before that), today Rebecca Welch is on the brink of making history. She has become the first female referee to be appointed to a game in the men’s English Football League [EFL] – and will be taking charge of the League Two clash between Harrogate Town and Port Vale tomorrow afternoon.

Now the highest-ranking female referee in English football after only 11 years on the professional circuit, the County Durham native has already officiated the Women’s FA Cup Final twice, but credits her appointment to tomorrow’s EFL match as the ‘biggest achievement’ of her career so far. And it promises to be not only a hugely positive move for Rebecca personally but also for women in football.

Alongside the likes of Sian Massey-Ellis – the Premier League’s first female assistant referee, who now seems like more of a regular fixture in the league than Man City versus Liverpool – and Amy Fearn, who came on as an injury substitute to referee an EFL match in 2010, Rebecca is blazing a trail for female match officials to be accepted into the top flights of English professional football.

We caught up with Rebecca to find out what the appointment means to her, the truth about being a woman managing a ‘men’s game’, and who inspired her growing up in the North East.

It’s an achievement which has been 11 years in the making. What made you first decide to become a referee?

It’s a bit of a strange one, because I think most people go into reffing because their mam or dad has done it, but I don’t have any family history of refereeing. My really good mate, she was a ref, and she used to ref some of the games on a Sunday when I used to play local league football. I always used to give her a bit of grief about her decisions, so she just turned round to me one day and said: look, if you think it’s so easy, why don’t you try it?! So I did! But even when I was doing the course I wasn’t thinking to myself: right, I’m going to be a ref now. I just went along to educate myself more about the sport I played every week. It all just took off from there.

Have you ever got much stick for being a female ref?

Obviously being a ref is never, ever plain sailing! But no-one has ever come to me and said: that decision you made was wrong because you’re a female. They’ve said it’s wrong because you’re a ref! You’re always going to please 11 players while annoying another 11 players with every decision you make. But I do know it happens – I know some people who’ve had criticism purely because they’re a woman. But honestly, hand on heart, I’ve never experienced it myself in 11 years as a ref.

I’ve been accepted really well, especially in the North East when I first came through. At the start, some of the players would be like: oh my God, the ref’s a girl! But not in a bad way, it was more just surprise because they weren’t used to seeing female refs. Then I started turning up every week and you just get to know people and they get to know you. I enjoyed it so much, it never felt like I was going to do a job. I think that’s really why I stuck at it.

You’ve already become a role model for women and girls everywhere. Who were some of your role models growing up?

That’s really difficult, because I’m 37. I know I’m not old, but I honestly don’t think there were that many female role models in the media when I was growing up. So I’d always say my role models were my Mam and Dad, because I was always surrounded by love, I was out on the street playing with all the other kids, I just had a great childhood. But there never seemed to be any female role models in the media, and they were probably something I looked for.

I think that’s why it’s so important now, because young girls and young lads put a lot of attention on the people in the media. If we can portray a good image and if kids can see people like them in places they want to get to someday, then hopefully they’ll think to themselves: well if they can do it, I can do it. It’s important that we embrace and advertise that. That’s why tomorrow’s match, for me, is a lot more than a game of football. It’s a message to younger girls – and women of any age really – saying that if I can do it, so can you.