Meet first female Premier League referee Rebecca Welch, who worked for the NHS before becoming a full-time official

ON December 23, history will be made.

Rebecca Welch will become the first female referee to officiate a Premier League fixture.

The 40-year-old from Washington, Tyne and Wear will take charge of Fulham and Burnley at Craven Cottage.

Just a few days later, Sam Allison will assume control over Sheffield United and Luton Town and become the first black official since Uriah Rennie 15 years ago.

It’s a groundbreaking moment in England’s top flight, which was applauded by Newcastle manager Eddie Howe.

“I think it’s a great moment,” he said. 

“For me, it’s got to be based on ability, not gender, ability to referee and I fully support it.”

While PGMOL head of referees Howard Webb told Sky Sports: “They are both part of the PGMOL development group which fast-tracks talented officials through the pathway.

“We have already seen three officials from the group take charge of their first Premier League games and now we have number four and five and it shows the value of that work.

“We have not seen a female take charge of a Premier League game before so it’s significant, and Sam being the first black official with a whistle in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie.

“It demonstrates people can make it through the pathway from groups that are not traditionally well represented.”

But Rebecca’s path to the top was far from traditional.

She admittedly fell into refereeing by mistake, before being the woman in the middle for the League Two fixture between Harrogate Town and Port Vale in 2019.

Up until then she worked as an administrator for the NHS.

Grateful to the NHS

“The NHS are a crucial piece of the jigsaw to how I am here, with the flexibility they gave me,” Welch revealed.

“I worked full-time but if I needed time off to go to games, if I needed to leave early or if I needed to go on any Uefa trips, they were always very accommodating. Never once did I have to say ‘I can’t attend a game because I have to go to work’ – their support was brilliant.

Welch worked in the NHS’s business services authority for 17 years.

She said: “I decided a couple of years ago to take a career break [from the NHS], just because I wanted to give football everything and I wanted to be in a position to, when I retire, sit back and say I gave it 100% and this was what I achieved.

“Hopefully when I retire from refereeing I will return to the NHS and they’ll have me back.”

‘I didn’t want to ref’

It wasn’t Welch’s plan to become a referee.

She actually fell into it by mistake, after sharing a joke with Uefa B ref, Lindsey Robinson, and soon began juggling her NHS job with Sunday league games in County Durham.

“Lindsey used to ref some of our games when I played local football,” Welch told The Telegraph.

“I used to say how refereeing is ‘so easy’ and how referees always get it wrong and she said ‘well if you think it’s that easy, go and do it’ and that was it.

“Still with no real ambition to referee a game, I just thought I’d go and do the course and learn a bit more about the laws of the game. Then I picked up the whistle, did my first five games and I stopped playing to start being a referee.

“It’s a role people look at and think ‘why would you want to be a referee?’ but actually the rewards you get out of it, it’s completely changed me as a person, it’s completely changed my life, for the better. It’s kind of gone in a whirlwind. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Respect

This season, especially, the Premier League has seen a staggering rise of abuse for officials from players, managers, and taunting from the crowd.

Welch, herself, faced alleged misogynistic chanting towards her during a Birmingham City game that saw two 17-year-old boys arrested.

She feels respected by the players, and believes there is a difference between abuse and disagreeing with decisions.

“A lot of people think that as a referee I go out on a Saturday and for 90 minutes I get a torrent of abuse – that’s actually not true,” she said.

“There’s a difference between somebody who is abusing you and somebody who is disagreeing with your decisions. I do feel respected by the players.

“I think the abuse side of it is a different avenue and that’s something that fortunately I haven’t been privy to, in my 11 years. I’ve never had somebody come in and give me abuse just because I’m a female referee or abuse because I’m a referee.

“I’ve had people disagree with me because of the nature of the job I do, but there are some people who have come under that [abuse] so we definitely need to do more work in that area to stop that happening as we move forward.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk