A bit of history is set to take place on December 23rd’s showdown between Fulham and Burnley as Rebecca Welch is set to become the first woman to referee a Premier League game.
While Wendy Toms, Natalie Aspinall, and Sian Massey-Ellis have all acted as assistants to run the line, Welch will become the first woman to take on the role of referee for a Premier League game. The 39 year old has seen added responsibility heaped onto her plate of late, having run a Championship game earlier this year between Birmingham City and Preston North End, and acting as a 4th official for Manchester United vs. Fulton last month.
Her previous experience also includes matches at the Women’s World Cup where she oversaw 3 games, including a round of 16 match between Australia and Denmark. Prior to that, she oversaw games in the National League, and also officiated the Women’s FA Cup finals in both 2017 and 2020.
“I played football and didn’t even think about refereeing until one of my really good friends, who is a referee, refereed us,” Welch said in an interview with the Independent. “I spent the whole game telling her how to do her job! Her response was, ‘If you think it’s that easy, give it a go.’ That’s how it happened and 10 years later here I am.”
Howard Webb, chief refereeing officer at PGMOL remarked “We need greater diversity because undoubtedly there is quality in all communities and previously for whatever reason we have not been able to bring people through from those groups. Now it’s happening at last, thankfully.”
Fulham and Burnley are set to square off at 10am ET on Saturday December 23rd at Craven Cottage.
Photo: El Loko Foto. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.