“Of course, football is not in my culture, no. But you know, I am here to break the stereotypes. Girls can play football, girls can do whatever they want.” Ref. Jawahir Roble (JJ).
Gender is a common issue of discus in every sport, especially football coverage. One important item worthy of note is that gender is usually ignored when speaking about officiating. The apparent cause may be because female referees nearly do not exist both at local levels and exceedingly at professional levels. Without doubt, the number of both genders is roughly the same. However, noticeable disparities subsist in assertive roles such as coaching, refereeing and ownership. This scarcity may be ascribed to the fact that virtually all referees are males, female refs can easily be intimidated, the barring of female refs at youth levels, verbal and physical abuses, sexual molestation to mention a few.
For quite some time now, female participation in football especially at the officiating level is taking a positive trend. There have been both local and international recognition for African female referees in their respective football associations. FIFA for some time now have turned her searchlight towards the women folk and have kept it focused on them since 2012, when it upgraded Gladys Lengwe to the esteemed position as a FIFA referee, making her the first female to officiate top-flight matches in Africa. Gladys elevation became an instant booster and a galvanizing factor for other female officials to step up their game across the African continent. Since then, there have been quite a number of female referees who were groomed and subsequently upgraded to FIFA status. Also the world football governing body in her wisdom made it a duty to conduct periodic tests and assessments by way of inviting female referees alongside their male counterparts for workshops and seminars. In addition, FIFA also invites other local female referees to understudy how other prominent male and female referees perform during major football tournaments in other parts of the world.
Permit me therefore, to present to you one of Africa’s finest and toughest female referee from Senegal that was upgraded to a FIFA referee status. Fatou Thioune is an African beauty who happens to be doing quite well in two male dominated professions. Yes you heard me right! She is a Soldier as well as a Referee and excels in both without the other suffering in the least.
Born on 17th of June 1985, Fatou can simply be described as a Soldier during the day and a Football official during the night. She is a super woman of some sort who has the uncanny ability to combine the disciplined life and rigorous tasks of the military, together with the demanding athleticism of running up and down football field, blowing high pitch whistle or the tiring job of raising flags by the sidelines.
Being a non commissioned soldier in the army, Sergeant Fatou is among the referees expected to officiate in the 2019 FIFA women world cup in France and had lead in numerous international matches, prominent among which is her participation in the under-20 2016 women’s world cup in Papua New Guinea, continental competitions or qualifying matches in African countries such as Cameroon, Togo, Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville Algeria and Ivory Coast.
Football fans and officials asserted that she is known to brood no nonsense from players, tough on the men and tougher on the females. It is a fact that African referees are known to make controversial arbitration's during matches due to corruption and or favoritism. As for Fatou, there are no controversies trailing her career as an international referee so far, this may be attributed to her being a soldier or perhaps she is simply a well brought up girl who decides to tow the line of fairness and justice.
They say “charity begins at home”, sergeant Fatou happened to come from a sporting family, being the only female in the house, her male siblings foot-balling did rub off on her such that despite joining the army, she just couldn’t let go of the keen interest developed during her formative years.
Women like Fatou have put paid to the fact that it is good to allow the girl child to partake in the sport of her choosing without unnecessary inhibitions from the society, especially from parents. In addition, Schools should not create any form of dichotomy between the genders when it comes to sporting activities in other not to suppress hidden talents in our girls. Also, it is our duty as men to open up the spaces and make allowance for women to compete favorably in any sporting activity of their choosing. Men can do this by jettisoning the already ill grained, old fashioned, biased sentiments and barriers raised against them, cessation from any form of abuse of female officials and some such ill treatments.
There are other women who have made marks as referees in other parts of the world alongside their counterparts in the African continent. It is my hope to write about them as time goes on.
Thank you for stopping by, sincerely @izge.
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