Romanian women’s refereeing in the lift

Romanian football refereeing is in the lift. Teodora Albon and Cristina Dorcioman got appointments for major finals last season.

“I was very happy to have been appointed for the final”, says Dorcioman, who refereed UEFA Women’s EURO 2013 final between Germany and Norway in Solna, Sweden.

Dorcioman talks to Uefa.com about her experiences. Such finals are very important for the development of women’s refereeing in a country. This is a great opportunity for Women’s refereeing in Romania and why not for males too”, she said. “Because many young people ask me how to become a referee. This was a remarkable thing and I’m happy because I can be a positive example for my students at school.”

Dorcioman is a role model for future referee generations in Romania. “A few years ago, there were only a ten female referees in Romania. You can image: for 18 million inhabitants in Romania. A few years ago since we entered the Uefa convention we have made great progress. The number of female referees has increased. I’ve been very happy.”

Female refereeing in The Netherlands

The Dutch refereeing needs some good achievements from top referees. The total number of female referees in the Netherlands was only 49 in the 2012-2013 season. The Dutch FA (KNVB) hasn’t released new stats yet, but local offices of the KNVB ask for more female match officials. In nothern district only 8 out of 1000 referees are female. Local tv made a short documentary at a match of Marije Deuring, who officiates men’s matches for five years now.

In the video (in Dutch) one of the coaches says afterwards: “The first five till ten minutes the players see a woman as referee, but they didn’t notice it after that. She (the referee) earned their respect.”

How’s the development of women’s refereeing in your country? Do you know how many female referees there are (and how many male)?

UPDATE: I already got some response from Brazil. There are 185.239 male referees and there are 36 female referees and 76 female assistants, says @apitionacional on Twitter.

2012-2013 final referees ready for their top matches

The 2012-2013 final referees are announced by Uefa and they are all really looking forward to their appointments in European finals.

Referee Uefa Women’s Champions League

Referee Teodora Albon, happy during tv interview after being appointed as Uefa Women's Champions League final referee.

Referee Teodora Albon, happy during tv interview after being appointed as Uefa Women’s Champions League final referee.

Romanian referee Teodora Albon is appointed as the UEFA Women’s Champions League final between VfL Wolfsburg and Olympique Lyonnais. The match will be played Thursday 23rd of May at Stamford Bridge. She’s really looking forward to her final match and talked about it with a Romanian sports tv channel. Translated with some help from Google Translate: “I live a wonderful dream. It’s the first final in our life, and I hope it’s not the the last time I’ll be in a final.” She also added that refereeing is changing now in her country Romania. “Arbitration has unfortunately been tarnished lately by issues that have emerged in our country.” In the past years referees and coachen in Romanian football were accused of match-fixing.

Referee UEFA European Under-17 Championship final

Next Friday Anastasios Sidiropoulos will take charge of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship final. “It is an honour to be selected. It feels good because you know that all the hard work you put in to get here finally pays off and you can reap the rewards”, says a happy Sidiropoulos to Uefa.com, where you can read the full interview. It’s a multicultural team for the final between Italy and Russia. Greek referee Anastasios Sidiropoulos will be helped by assistant referees Dejan Kostadinov from Macedonia and Richard Storey from Northern Ireland. The fourth official Ivaylo Stoyanov comes from Bulgaria. “uring the tournament we have had excellent cooperation on and off the field and all of them are experienced international officials, who have been officiating at the top level in their own countries.”

Read more about Björn Kuipers’s appointment as referee for last weeks Europa League final.