UEFA: ASA also present at first Women’s Refereeing Symposium

San Marino football and refereeing, through the San Marino Referees Association represented by Stefano Podeschi, also took part in the first UEFA Symposium dedicated to women’s refereeing, held on 23-24 February at UEFA headquarters in Nyon. At the heart of the discussions and debates were the most effective strategies to ensure the best possible support for women referees – from Grassroots level through to the Elite level.

The agenda naturally included technical matters, but not only those. In fact, everything revolved around the central topic, summed up in the question: “How can we create the best possible environment for women referees and maintain Europe’s position at the forefront of refereeing excellence?” It is easy to understand – even if it is far from obvious to reflect on it or to take effective action – how issues such as pregnancy among women referees and returning to refereeing after childbirth, as well as the psychological dimension and balancing a dual career, are of primary importance in relation to the symposium’s objectives. All representatives of the European football associations returned home with a better understanding and useful tools for providing sustainable pathways that allow women not only to enter the refereeing system, but also to progress within it and receive appropriate support from national referees’ associations. As Dagmar Damková (member of the UEFA Referees Committee) put it: “This first Women’s Refereeing Symposium is not intended as a mere exchange of opinions or speeches, but also aims to stimulate thinking about practical changes. The next generation of women referees will not judge us on our intentions, but on what we have concretely built for them”.

There was no shortage of in-depth contributions based on the experience of several European football associations. For example, starting from the recent recruitment campaign developed in Belgium, delegates worked in groups to assess and refine their respective national strategies on this topic. As important as recruitment is the retention within the refereeing system of active match officials, which was the subject of detailed analysis.