La Liga will have a female referee assistant for the first time next season, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has announced.
Guadalupe Porras Ayuso, 31, has been refereeing for 16 seasons and will feature in Spain’s top flight in 2019-20 after working her way her up through the leagues and spending the last two campaigns in the Segunda Division.
“I’m very happy, on a cloud,” she said. “We all dream about being in Primera Division and after a lot of work, I have achieved it. I still can’t believe it.”
Porras Ayuso, who is from Badajoz, will be the first female referee to feature in La Liga. Another, Marisa Villa, was promoted to Spain's top flight as an assistant in 2007, but was never able to debut after failing to pass the strict fitness tests.
“A little more than a year ago, this was unthinkable,” RFEF president Luis Rubiales said on Twitter. “Definitively, also in Spanish refereeing, we are proving that THE CHANGE IS UNSTOPPABLE.”
Another female official, Marta Huerta de Aza, will take charge of games in Spain’s Segunda B next season.
