‘I used to hate that word trailblazer’: Premier League’s first female referee reflects on 14-year career as she moves to managing officials
In the National Football Museum, Rebecca Welch is reflecting on her own place in the sport’s history.
“I used to hate that word trailblazer,” the Premier League’s first female referee told Sky News.
“I probably grew more comfortable with it over the years because it’s not really about me, it’s about how that influences the young girls, young boys, to think – there’s an opportunity to be involved in football.
“So if they see me in the Premier League and that makes them think about taking up the whistle and being a referee, then that’s really my job done.”
Rebecca Welch speaking to Sky News’ Rob Harris
Rebecca Welch walking out to start a Premier League game between Fulham and Burnley
And her job is done – on the pitch, at least.
Welch is speaking for the first time in a TV interview about her milestone match last December in the men’s top flight – refereeing Fulham’s match against Burnley – and her decision to retire at the peak of her game to take a job managing professional women’s referees.
Hers is not a career where sexism has inhibited her rise from NHS administrator to the Women’s Super League, the World Cup, the Olympics, and the Premier League.
But in the week anti-discrimination campaigners Kick It Out revealed half of women surveyed have witnessed or experienced sexist language at football, there is an incident Welch wants to talk about for the first time.
Welch wants to make clear she never heard the misogynistic chants, the stadium was far too loud at Birmingham City.
But police arrested two fans during the Championship match against Sheffield Wednesday last November, two years after she became the first woman to referee in the men’s English Football League (EFL).
“I did have the opportunity to ask the police what was said, but I didn’t want to ask because to me, it’s kind of irrelevant… the words,” Welch said.
“If the meaning behind it was misogynistic, then we shouldn’t be saying it.”
Welch believes in educating people so that behaviours can improve
Faced with prosecuting them or working to attempt to change the offenders’ mindsets, Welch favoured educating them with West Midlands Police and Kick It Out.
She offered to go to the education session but was out of the country doing what she did best – whistle in hand.
Catherine Clinton, who specialises in sexism in the Football Policing Unit, told Sky News that the education session had a positive effect, with the offenders realising how they may have impacted someone’s life.
“So the education was good for that and positively driving the social change in behaviour,” she said.
And that is why Welch was satisfied with the outcome.
“I think people should be given second chances, give them some education, and then if they do it again, I think then that’s probably a different story,” Welch said.
“We need to sometimes educate people so that behaviours can improve and that won’t happen again.”
The 40-year-old knows criticism is part of the game, but there is a difference when it oversteps the mark and descends into hatred.
And contrary to some perceptions from managers, players and fans, making a mistake will happen and does weigh on the mind.
You don’t quickly move on.
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“I think what people probably don’t see and should understand is there’s also an emotional attachment from the referee,” she said. “I’ve gone out and given decisions and reflected on them, even later on in the game.
“We do go out and try and give honest decisions based on what we can see and what view we’ve got.
“Sometimes they come back and they can be incorrect. A couple of them I’ve looked back and I’ve held my hands up and said to the managers or the players I was incorrect.”
There cannot be perfection in refereeing, even with VAR. Especially with VAR, creating unrealistic expectations of perfection.
VAR is yet to enter the Women’s Super League.
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“It’s the hardest job in football, but it’s probably why we love it,” Welch said. “We’re just trying to do an honest day’s work. That’s all we’re trying to do. And sometimes we do get things wrong.
“And I think every referee accepts that because we’re not superhuman. I think there just needs to be a little bit more understanding. Players get things wrong, coaches do. Sometimes referees do.
“We learn from that. We’ll get better and hopefully will not make the same mistake twice.”
Now it is for Welch to guide the next generation of referees, knowing her own place in history is secure.
And what about a woman coaching in the EFL or Premier League now those men’s competitions have had matches refereed by Welch, showing the best person has earned the opportunity and thrived?
“I think it’ll be a big milestone and, once one does it, then you see that happen and then other people will start doing it,” Welch said.
“I wouldn’t like to lose them (from the women’s game), but that’s a personal choice of a coach. In my opinion, the Women’s Super League is the biggest, if not the best, in the world. So why would you not want to coach in that league?”
Now for Welch, it is overseeing referees in that league, watching the growth from a wider vantage point, and reflecting with pride on a 14-year career.
“I look back on that and smile and think, I went there, I gave it a go,” she said.
“I’ve really excelled in it. I made the elite level and I can retire really, really happy.”
Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.
Questions have been raised over the ultimate source of the funds from The Spott Fitness, which gave Mr Jenrick three separate £25,000 donations in July.
As first reported by Tortoise Media, the company received a loan from a firm based in the BVI.
The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that The Spott Fitness “as I understand it… is a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.
Politics Live: Tory leadership candidates faced questions on Sky News
Mr Jenrick spoke to Sky News alongside the three other rivals to replace Rishi Sunak, as the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham kicks off.
During the interviews, Kemi Badenoch said she is a fighter and if someone takes a swing at her “I will swing back”.
Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat defended his “posh boy public school background”, saying his military service has given him leadership skills, while former home secretary James Cleverly refused to name any of the previous four Tory prime ministers as being to blame for the party’s general election defeat, saying the public “don’t like infighting”.
Jenrick says donations ‘valid’
Asked about the donations from The Spott Fitness, which have been declared on his MPs’ register of interests, Mr Jenrick said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.
“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”
Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said this would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way” and he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company”.
“What people are criticising Labour for is actually rather different,” he added.
“Labour are being criticised for their rank hypocrisy that they spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”
The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week was overshadowed by a donation and freebies row, after it emerged Sir Keir Starmer accepted over £100,000 in gifts since 2019.
Starmer has been criticised for accepting freebies. Pic: Reuters
Questions have been raised in particular over the large amount given by Labour peer and TV executive Lord Alli, who had a pass to Number 10 for a short time in order to attend meetings, the government said.
The Conservatives are now gathering in Birmingham since their worst defeat at the ballot box in history at the July general election.
Robert Jenrick speaks to Trevor Phillips
Jenrick backs ‘cast iron cap’ on migration
Mr Jenrick, currently the frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak, said his party made “serious mistakes” and failed to deliver.
He is pitching himself as a “change” candidate, telling Trevor Phillips he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) in order to get the failed £700m Rwanda asylum scheme up and running, and introduce a cap on migration.
He said this would be different from previous commitments to introduce a limit as the cap would be “legally binding… cast in iron”, with the number set “in the tens of thousands or lower”.
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‘I will swing back’
Badenoch: ‘If you swing at me I will swing back’
Mr Jenrick faces competition on the right from Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister.
Speaking to Phillips, she defended an Op-ed in The Daily Telegraph in which she claimed there was a rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.
She said she was not referring to all Muslim immigrants “but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two”.
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The combative shadow housing secretary also insisted she does not go looking for fights when asked about her rows with the likes of Doctor Who star David Tennant, but that she will stand up for herself.
The North West Essex MP said: “I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.”
She added: “I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.”
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‘People have seen my faults’
‘Public don’t like bickering’
All four leadership contenders will make their case at the party conference this week, before another round of voting by MPs will reduce them to the final two, which the party membership will then vote on.
Mr Cleverly, who got the least votes of those remaining in the previous round, said his various cabinet roles in the past few years meant he has spent “more time promoting other people’s ideas” rather than his own – but that shows he is a “team player”.
He declined to name a prime minister who he blamed most for the party’s 2024 defeat but added: “I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like – they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.”
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Need to be ‘tough’ on Iran
Mr Tugendhat asked the public to judge him on his own record, rather than his public schooling.
“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at,” he said.
“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
An eight-year-old boy has died after sustaining “serious” injuries to his head and face after being shot at a farm.
Cumbria Police said they are investigating the incident, and said they were called to the farm – in the Warcop area – at around 2.50pm on Saturday.
They said they received “a report that a child had been seriously injured by a firearm at the property” and that police and North West Ambulance Service attended.
“The firearm was secured at the scene by police and an eight-year-old boy was taken to hospital by air ambulance having suffered serious and life-threatening injuries to his head and face,” they said.
“Sadly, the boy has died overnight.”
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Cumbria Police added officers arrested a man in his 60s at the scene on suspicion of assault GBH.
“He remains in police custody but is now under arrest on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter,” they said in a statement.
UK
Rosie Duffield ‘never thought’ she would quit Labour – but says Sir Keir Starmer ‘has problem with women’
Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said she never thought she would leave the party “in a million years” and suggested the prime minister has a “problem with women” after her resignation.
The Canterbury MP, who submitted a scathing resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday, told the BBC she is “desperately sorry” to those in her constituency who voted for Labour.
“It’s not at all where I wanted to be. I never thought in a million years I would leave this party,” she told the broadcaster late last night.
“I’m trying not to get upset… it’s in your soul and your heart, particularly someone like me.
“I’m from a very different background to Keir Starmer. I was a single mum who needed the Labour Party.
“It’s just so profoundly disappointing as a Labour voter and activist and a former recipient of tax credits in a low-paid job to see this is what we’ve become.”
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Her resignation letter to the prime minister said she was “so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party”.
In the interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Duffield was asked if she thought Sir Keir “has a problem with women”.
She replied: “I’m afraid I do. I’ve experienced it myself.”
The now-independent MP said she and other female Labour backbenchers refer to “the young men who surround” Sir Keir as “the lads”.
“It’s very clear that the lads are in charge,” she added.
“They’ve now got their Downing Street passes and they’re the same ones briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs.”
Her resignation letter specifically criticised Sir Keir’s treatment of Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott as “deeply shameful” after her long-term suspension.
Reacting to Ms Duffield’s resignation on Sky News, Labour minister Pat McFadden said he “regrets” her decision, but added: “It’s probably not a secret that she’s been unhappy for some time.”
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PM defends £20k donation from Lord Alli
On questions of “sleaze” that relate to Sky News revelations of the prime minister receiving more freebies than any other MP, he said he “wouldn’t characterise it in the way that Rosie has” and that there was “no public money involved”.
He also said he is “not ashamed of the party” and that “government is always tough” in light of Labour’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for thousands of pensioners.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Starmer ‘hasn’t actually explained’
Ms Duffield told Kuenssberg Labour’s three months in power has been “mass hypocrisy” she “can’t be part of”.
“It’s greed,” she said. “Why else would someone on so much more money than most people get free gifts? He can absolutely afford his own clothes – we all can.”
She said Sir Keir “hasn’t answered” or “actually explained” the situation.
In response to the revelations on his donations, he said: “Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules.
“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election. And that’s why shortly after the election, my team reached out for advice on what declarations should be made so it’s in accordance with the rules.
“They then sought out for further advice more recently, as a result of which they’ve made the relevant declarations.”
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