The referee who became the first woman to officiate a Ukrainian Premier League game and took charge of an England match earlier this year has spoken of the hurt she feels in the face of sexism.
When Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell’s goal was ruled out for offside in a World Cup Qualifier in Andorra in October, Kharkiv-born Kateryna Monzul oversaw the decision as part of an all-women refereeing team.
Predictably, the goal was then allowed following a VAR check – and authoritative Monzul was widely credited with producing a strong performance in the middle as England eased to a 5-0 victory on their way to the 2022 finals in Qatar.
Now an established elite referee, Monzul is a pioneer: as well as becoming the first woman to take charge of a Three Lions men’s match, she was at the center of the first all-female refereeing team to officiate in a senior men’s international when San Marino played Gibraltar in November 2020.
//www.instagram.com/p/CVgBg57NRvK
//www.instagram.com/p/CXAsJWAt7cG
That came four years after she was the first woman to referee in the Ukrainian Premier League (UPL) in her homeland.
“At the time when I started, in 2000, women’s refereeing was a curiosity,” Monzul has now reflected to Vacko Live via Tribuna.