by When Rebecca Welch becomes the first woman to referee a Premier League match for Fulham’s match against Burnley on Saturday, it won’t be the first time Craven Cottage will host a historic moment for women working in football.
On 21 April 2007, in another top-flight match other than Thames against Lancashire rivals, this time in the form of Blackburn Rovers, broadcaster Jacqui Oatley made her debut as a Match of the Day commentator, and many people were up in arms. in arms.
Speaking to Telegraph Sport, Oatley says she is glad the partnership has “moved forward” such that Welch does not have to be subjected to the media furor that engulfed her in 2007, when articles criticizing her appointment were accompanied by headlines reading “from Motty to Totty.”
“At that time I was commenting for [Radio] 5 Live and it wasn’t completely out of the ordinary for a 5 Live commentator to be asked to do Match of the Day, which is why I didn’t think about it as much. [initially]. “So I thought ‘wait a minute, I hope there isn’t any kind of public outcry here,’ because frankly I could live without that,” Oatley says. “I expected it to be nice and calm. But that was an illusion.
“Unfortunately it was made public in a national newspaper. Then I woke up one morning and heard my name at the top of the radio and I thought ‘oh God’. It became a big story with discussions and a debate about sexism. A former top-flight coach and a journalist from a major newspaper said they were against it and I found that quite insulting. I felt alone.
“I was living alone and single at the time, I was in the eye of a storm and all I wanted to do was focus on my preparation, and instead I made the mistake of wasting time by politely declining every interview. I never wanted to be the story, so I just said “no” to everything. I couldn’t really sleep and didn’t eat for a few days. My stomach was in knots. “I felt like my brain was mushy peas trying to get through that day and hopefully not get too much criticism.”
On the day of the match, Oatley was presented with a shirt in the tunnel before the match by Fulham, who introduced him to the sponsors, and he adds: “It was really strange to see the photographers turning in a line and taking photos of me. on the porch. Even the referee that day, Graham Poll, gave me a thumbs up and wished me luck. That was very surreal.
“I certainly felt a certain sense of responsibility in the back of my mind that if people didn’t like me, in the future they wouldn’t like all female commentators and would unilaterally rule that women can’t comment on football or sports. So I told myself, “Do the best job you can.”
“I thought, ‘if I could get on with this, hopefully come out vaguely unscathed and have the chance to do another one when I’m not losing sleep, then that would be fantastic’ and luckily that’s what happened a couple of years ago. months later.”
“This has been coming, it’s not a big bolt from the blue”
Welch has already been a trailblazer for female referees for many years, becoming the first woman to referee an EFL match when she took charge of Harrogate Town against Port Vale in 2021, and then the first to be in the middle of a third EFL match. the men’s FA Cup. round tie, Birmingham City v Plymouth Argyle in 2022. Since then she has worked across the Women’s World Cup and regularly takes charge of the men’s Championship matches as well as the Women’s Super League.
“What he’s accomplishing is fantastic and based on merit,” Oatley said of Welch. “This appointment is coming. It’s not a huge bolt from the blue, because she worked her way into the system, and there’s no way Howard Webb would put her in charge if he thought she couldn’t hack it. And she has a lot of people supporting her.
“She’s just going to focus on doing the best job she can, like every weekend when she’s in a game, and I hope she thinks, ‘I do this every week.’ She certainly doesn’t need my advice because she is an excellent referee and official, but she controls the things you can control and just smiles at the rest. You have to smile because it is an experience.
“And there’s so much controversy about officiating right now that, hey, if she makes a mistake, it’s not because she’s a woman, right? That is sure.
“Football is benefiting from having more female referees”
The coincidence of their respective moments in history being at Craven Cottage is not lost on Oatley, who believes it will help Welch, adding: “Fulham are a lovely club to deal with. It’s one of my favorite places to go. They are a good group of fans and the people behind the scenes will be great with her.
“And I think we’ve come a long way in terms of attitudes in society. I don’t think they judge her on whether she can referee or not because she has already proven it every week.
“That is why I would like to pay tribute to the work of Women In Football over all these years: they have contributed greatly to making this situation the norm and not front-page news. We have moved forward as a sport since 2007.
“Football is now benefiting from having more female referees. Because football needs more officials. It’s better for the game as a whole to have this variety of talent, not just take talent from half the population. We need little girls watching Match of the Day this weekend to look at Welch and think ‘maybe I could do that, how do I start that journey?’”
‘Women only want to be judged on our merits’
Another thing that pleases Oatley is the increasing number of women commentating on football these days, so she says: “Something good came out of me taking that hit, so to speak, and although it was deeply unpleasant at the time, I’m very happy if it means other women can move forward. Because I wouldn’t want that [unpleasantness] about any of them. That’s why I’m very happy when I hear a woman comment.
“Football as a sport has changed completely. Now it’s not all white men sitting at home watching football. Traditionally that was the image. But now it is not. The sport now has a very diverse audience.
“I hope we’re at a point where maybe listeners don’t even realize the commenter is a woman, and if they’re not your favorites, that’s fine, but you don’t denigrate an entire species based on ‘You don’t like it.'” “A woman’s particular comment. Women from all walks of life only want to be judged on our merits.”
