Career development in Women Football Refereeing: an exploratory study in Portugal and Spain

Introduction: The career of a female football referee is challenging, with only a few achieving excellence and international recognition due to the high demands and difficulties in maintaining sustainability. Objective: to identify the most effective strategies in selection, recruitment and retaining of women football referees as well as determine the main barriers for a female as a football referee in a men-dominated sport in Portugal and Spain. Methodology: 427 women referees aged between 11 and 50 yrs. (25.1±6.7) belonging to the regional and national Portuguese and Spanish Football Federations. The Referee Retention Scale was used to identify some variables that could influence the retaining of women refereeing, a focus group was conducted, and a semi-structured qualitative interview was performed to complement data. Results: Mentoring was the most important dimension regarding the retention on women referee career followed by Intrinsic Motivation on both countries. Discussion: Referee's career sustainability was also influenced by main barriers, which were related with three aspects: lack of institutional support throughout the career; lack of potential career; difficulty in reconciling personal and professional life, namely lack of support in motherhood. Conclusions: This article opens a new perspective on women’s referee career sustainability. Its content may constitute an important insight for the implementation of women referee career, namely from base to top.