Two female match officials from Staffordshire featured on BBC Midlands Today on Sunday 3 February, as cameras followed them to a recent referee training event at St George’s Park.

Ran by The FA, the annual Women’s Grassroots Refereeing Development Event was attended by over 100 female referees from across the country, including five Staffordshire FA officials and one of our senior female referees, Chloe Matthews, who helped deliver training on the day.

After taking part in a series of fitness and positioning sessions, Alice and Teigan, who are both affiliated to Staffordshire FA, spoke to the BBC’s Amy Cole about their love for refereeing.

Alice said: “I feel like today has been very beneficial to me and I’m really enjoying the sessions we’ve done so far. I can see myself refereeing older women and maybe men in the future.”

Teigan added: “Currently, I’m refereeing Under-12 boys on a Sunday in my local area. I definitely want to pursue this as a career. I think now is the perfect opportunity to do that, because there’s more women in the game and women’s refereeing is growing – as you can see from the people here today. Why should men have to referee men’s games? Why can’t women do it as well?”

Staffordshire FA is proud of its female referee workforce and is keen to advise, support and develop any aspiring referees in the local area.

To help us do just that we’re running a Female-Only FA Referee Course at Wyrley Juniors FC during the Easter Holidays (Monday 15-Thursday 18 April 2019).

To find out more about this course and to book your place, please CLICK HERE or contact Support@StaffordshireFA.com