Saturday the 9th of October 2021 will mark a historic moment. For the first time in history the England men’s team will be refereed by an all-female team od referees. Kateryna Monzul will take the honour of being the first woman to referee a senior England men’s am. The world cup qualifier between Andorra and England will sell Monzuls fellow Ukrainian Maryna Striletska and Svetlana Grushko take on assistant referee and VAR duties.
England manager Gareth Southgate highlighted the positives of this moment but also marks how this will not change the way the team will prepare for the match. “It’s a very important moment for gender equability, absolutely. For us though, it’s almost irrelevant. It’s the quality of the official that’s important, not the gender.”
By Alex Gibbons