The Premier League’s referee match evaluation scheme will be used in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League as part of an attempt to improve officiating standards.
Managers have been critical of the officiating and the FA’s head of women’s refereeing, Jo Stimpson, admitted in February that referees were playing catch-up with the standards set by a fully professional division.
The FA’s head of the women’s professional game, Kelly Simmons, said on Friday that all 12 WSL clubs had raised refereeing as a priority.
“We are working really hard behind the scenes to develop referees, female referees and referees in the female game,” she said. “The big change for this season is we have worked with Professional Game Match Officials Limited and they have been fantastic. We are working with them on the ‘referee 360’, which is only in the Premier League at the moment.”
The scheme, funded by the FA and operated by the PGMOL, uses match footage to allow video analysis of every decision made by referees and their assistants and replaces the observer scheme.
“Everyone who referees a WSL game will get the game back with every decision that they made or didn’t make and coaching of it, rather than an observer sitting in the stand and guessing whether they got it right or not.”
Those observers will move to assessing the quality of referees in the Championship, where checks have been patchy, and the hope is that officiating levels in that division will benefit.
