Webb denies WSL official lost role over complaint

Lisa Benn was a referee at the 2022 Women's European Championship

Referees' chief Howard Webb has denied a former staff member lost her position as an international football referee because she complained a coach "manhandled" her.

Lisa Benn, 34, alleged she was grabbed and threatened by an assistant referee coach and unfairly lost her position on Fifa's international officials list because she lodged a grievance with the organisation responsible for managing and training professional football referees and match officials in England.

After the incident Benn went from fifth to sixth in the Professional Game Match Officials Limited's (PGMOL) nominations to world football's governing body.

At an employment tribunal on Thursday, Webb - who is the PGMOL's chief refereeing officer - said the Women's Super League (WSL) official received a lower ranking because she was outperformed by others.

Fifa only accepts five referees on their women's game list, but the panel was told the PGMOL had asked for them to take on a sixth for that season.

Webb told the tribunal it was "our honestly held belief that she would be accepted" because of the growth of the women's game and the "noises we were hearing" from sports bodies.

"Unfortunately, highly regrettably, it wasn't, but unfortunately, compared to the other officials in this ranking, she was correctly placed sixth, based on the performance factors listed and the holistic view we've gone through," he said.

"This is a competitive world in which we work and we need to rank officials against each other.

"We produce a lot of other really good officials in this country and we are in the difficult task to have to rank them against each other.

Benn alleged Steve Child, a former Premier League assistant referee, grabbed her arm and "forcefully pushed" her on to a pitch at a video assistant referee (VAR) training tournament in March 2023, and later told her, "your card has been marked".

Child, an assistant referee coach at the time, has denied making the comment and a PGMOL investigation found insufficient evidence for disciplinary action.

Benn then attended a training camp in August 2023, where she claimed Child intimidated her in the hotel reception, an incident she raised with Webb's wife, Bibi Steinhaus-Webb, who was then PGMOL's head of women's referees.

PGMOL's Fifa nominations were submitted the following month and Benn found out she had not been selected later in December.

Carla Fischer, for Benn, told Webb: "She made a second complaint that a male PGMOL coach made unwanted threatening remarks to a female referee in the women's game and that is why she was ranked sixth isn't it."

But Webb replied: "No, that is not correct."

A meeting was held in October 2023 in which Benn discussed her issues with PGMOL's investigation and said officials feared raising grievances because of possible consequences.

Recollecting the discussion, Webb added "the point being raised by Lisa that there was this sense of fear, among officials, in terms of reporting concerns.

"Of course, we want to know what is on the minds of our officials and for them to speak to us openly and confidently. We want our officials out on the field and performing."

When asked to describe the status of the Fifa list to refereess, he said: "They treasure this badge, they really, really do.

"We had a view that a sixth position was really, really quite likely. I think the growth of the women's game is pretty incredible and we think it's important to serve the demand."

The tribunal continues.