Top female referee wants to see more full time officials in women's game

Stacey Pearson from Somerset once played for Yeovil Town

A top female football referee has said she wants to see more full-time officials in the women's game.

Stacey Pearson from Somerset has refereed Women's Super League and Champion's League games, and is qualified to officiate internationally.

The former Yeovil Town player said the next step in the women's game should be an increase in the number of professional female referees, adding it has become the norm now to have more women officiating games.

Ms Pearson, who is also a PE teacher in Bristol, added seeing the first woman to referee a Premier League game last year was a "glass ceiling smashing" through.

Ms Pearson has refereed WSL games

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset, Ms Pearson said: "We've had professionalism of women's players and there's more support than ever from players and coaches.

"The next natural step would be to probably have full time referees in the female game.

"I think the biggest thing that I would like to see is the maximum number of people that we have increased, so I want to see more females at grassroots, and every level up to the top of the game."

Ms Pearson, who was originally from Devon, told BBC Radio Somerset seeing Rebecca Welch become the first woman to take charge of a men's Premier League game was "massive".

"It's kind of like glass ceiling smashed through, and she's worked really hard to get there. It just kind of shows how far we have come in the last ten years," she added.

The referee also said while she does sometimes get the odd comment off people about women being involved in football, its a systemic problem, and often part of society as a whole.

The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) group said that in the current season, 20% (15 of 75) of officials in the women’s group are on full time professional contracts.

"The group has doubled in size since Bibi Steinhaus-Webb took charge, not just limited to match officials but a growing team of support staff too," a spokesperson for the group added.

Ms Pearson wants to referee men's games next

Somerset Football Association is in the process of starting a female-only training programme to help those in the region get into football officiating.

Ms Pearson said her time in the grassroots of the game gave her "some very important" skills.

"I would say I had my biggest learning curves doing grassroots," she told BBC Radio Somerset.

"I refereed both men and women at grassroots and I think that's probably shaped who I am as a referee.

"You can now have the option to go up a female-only pathway, if you want to... it probably teaches you to be a bit more resilient, by doing both [men and women], and I think it's the better option to do both because you learn all aspects of the game."