Madison recalls male players and coaches looking “dog-eyed” and
“shocked” when she showed up to ref their games. Male officials on her crew have routinely forced her to
work the sideline despite her being assigned as the head official.
“I’ve had people tell me ‘you wouldn’t have made that call if you were a guy,'” Madison said. She added
that players and coaches often test her more than they would a male referee and think they can get away
with more because she is a woman.
Randy Vogt, author of “Preventive Officiating” and columnist for Soccer America, agrees that men
treat female officials differently.
“Coaches will often look to intimidate a female official when they wouldn’t do the same with a
man because they think the women is easily intimidated,” said Vogt, who has officiated more than
9,000 games across the country since becoming an official in 1978.
It can’t be denied though that women officials aren’t getting as many opportunities as men
simply because there are far more male officials.
“There isn't something specific that prohibits women from officiating men's games, it's a
numbers and logistics issue,” said former referee and Northwestern University soccer
player Jen Mayfield. “That's the root of the problem.”
According to Siomos, Chicago alone has roughly 200 men’s soccer games each weekend.
That amount of games will require nearly 800 referees. With that many positions to
fill, assignors often have no choice but to assign men.
“You can go to any referee association across the United States and I would be
surprised if 15 percent of officials in any organization were women. Mostly its
10 percent or less,” Vogt said. “Every association I have worked with has only a
couple female officials.”
The low number of women soccer officials is concerning, especially
considering that soccer is one of America’s most popular youth sports with
terrific female participation.
There are 3 million soccer players ages 5-19 registered with U.S. Youth
Soccer, and nearly 50 percent are female.
Female player participation does not correlate to a high number of
female officials though. And while finding women officials is
difficult, retaining them is even harder.
Veronica Tannenbaum, 16, from Chicago, went through referee
training, officiated two games, and then quit.
“I know that I'd rather be the one following the rules than
making them because one bad call and you have a bad name for
the rest of the game,” Tannenbaum said.
A lot of females will start officiating but won’t pursue
it if they can’t advance with their friends according to
Serafini, who says the highest number of female
officials is found at the entry level.
“Women run in packs and it’s sometimes easier to
recruit them in groups rather than individuals,”
Serafini said.
Vogt blames the lack of facilities at soccer
complexes for driving away females.
“Many fields don’t have bathrooms. Men get
creative and use the bushes. It’s not as
easy for a woman to do that,” Vogt said,
adding that the lack of restrooms can force
women to officiate without drinking water,
which can be dangerous.
Serafini first noticed the inequality
among male and female soccer officials
when the NWSL was formed in 2001.
“When the women’s professional league
came around in 2001, a lot of the
women got tied to that league and we
saw a big drop of women in men’s
professional leagues,” Serafini
said. “The mindset became ‘we don’t
see any women in the men’s league
anymore so we are going to kind of
save those opportunities for the
guys.'”
Part of Serafini’s job is to
identify up-and-coming female
officials in the U.S. at the
state level. Once a referee has
been identified, Serafini and
her team alert state assignors,
telling them that PRO expects
the referee to be assigned
certain games.
Serafini said this holds
states accountable and helps
ensure women get
opportunities.
“It’s a combination of
rattling some cages and
networking, but our pool
of who we can pick from
is definitely growing,
so, [I’m] pleased with
that, but it’s taken 5-6
years,” Serafini said.
Madison and female
officials across the
state are hoping
that Serafini
rattles some cages
in Illinois and that
women start
receiving the same
opportunities as men
to officiate the
beautiful game.
Siomos agrees.
“Soccer is one of
the best sports
in the world,”
Siomos said.
“There is no
room for
corruption.”