OFFSET YOUR WORLD CUP TRAVEL WITH GREENERTRAVEL
Date: 4th April 2024
In another excerpt from our Director of Operation’s book on Scottish referees, I’m today highlighting the difficulties our pioneering women officials faced as they battled to overcome prejudice and misogyny. The rise of women’s and girls’ football has put a strain on the number of referees we currently have, which is why we encourage all our 80,000+ members – female as well as male – to consider taking the refereeing course.
It wasn’t until the twenty-first century that a woman referee took charge of a high-profile match. The lady in question was Morag Pirie, who refereed a Highland League match between Huntly and Wick Academy on 2nd August 2003; the first time a woman had controlled a semi-pro game in Scotland. Like all the women who took up the challenge of officiating in what has been, at least until very recently, a male-dominated sport, Pirie suffered misogynist abuse. A few months after making her debut as a senior referee, she ran the line in a match between Albion Rovers and Montrose. Albion Rovers’ manager, Peter Hetherston, was sent to the stand for his comments to her, but doubled down on them afterwards, making it clear that, in his view, there should be no place for women in football. Perhaps it was the natural reaction of a manager whose side have just lost (Montrose won 1-0), but the fact that he added that, “She should be at home making the tea or the dinner for her man who comes in after he has been to the football,” didn’t help his cause, even though he claimed this statement was merely a joke. The SFA didn’t see it as such and Hetherston faced a disrepute charge, but he resigned before the hearing took place.
Morag Pirie subsequently became the first woman to officiate at a national Cup final when, in November 2007, she was an Assistant referee at the Scottish Challenge Cup final between St Johnstone and Dunfermline. One of my SFSA board colleagues was at that game and in what may be an indication of how uncontroversial her presence was, he couldn’t recall her running the line.
Here’s Morag, describing how she got into refereeing…
“I played football in the garden in Aberdeen with my twin sister and also at primary school in the playground with the boys, but girls weren’t allowed to play in the school team. However, when we were in Primary 6, we were both allowed to play in a girls’ team at the annual Dyce Gala.
“When I went to secondary school, there were no opportunities for girls to play football, but when I went to Aberdeen University, I was delighted to discover they had a women’s team, which I promptly joined. Around the same time, the SFA had just established a Women’s Development Officer for the north-east, as a sign of the increasing interest in women playing the game. A year or so later, a new women’s team started up in the city and placed an advert in the P&J (Press and Journal) looking for players. This was Aberdeen Accies, and I and my twin sister and also the development officer turned up and became players in this team.
“Whilst I was playing football, I also did some coaching courses, which I quite enjoyed. Then, the person who is responsible for my refereeing career came on the scene, or rather up the path to our house. It was the postie, who had seen an advert for the refereeing course in the P&J. He gave the paper to my mum and explained that he had seen me coaching at Bridge of Don and suggested, ‘perhaps Morag would like to do the refereeing course?’
“At much the same time, the Women’s Development Officer was looking for girls to help out by refereeing games, so I said I would and she gave me a whistle and away I went. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although in truth I didn’t actually know all the laws of the game. Then I thought that if I went and learned them, it would help me with my coaching. I didn’t do anything about it until I was in third year at university, but then I had a bash and scraped through the refereeing exam. My excuse was that I was studying hard for my university exams at the same time, but anyway, having passed I thought I’d give it a go and see if I liked it.
“The following summer, once I’d finished university, I started refereeing at Category 6, the level for those starting out. I did Juvenile football and some girls’ league games – Under-13s, 14s and 15s – and then on Sundays I did Under-11s and 12s. After a while, I was given some adult ladies’ football. It was all quite tiring, but I was young and very fit, plus I was enjoying it.
“In those first two years I did Juvenile games no-one came along to assess me. In truth, I didn’t really know a lot about refereeing at that time and it looked as if my career was going to be just doing youngsters’ matches, but then I got a big break. For many years, Aberdeen used to host an annual International Football Festival, which brought youngsters to the city from all over the world. I put my name forward for the Festival and was given some games as an Assistant Referee, running the line and, crucially, having other referees helping me, talking me through games and teaching me a lot more than I’d learned in the previous two years. To give you an idea of how little I knew, I hadn’t even heard of the diagonal system at that point, but the advice and encouragement I received really buoyed me up and I began to go to referee training and then my games started being assessed. Sandy Roy, who ran the Aberdeen Association at that time, and Carol Baxter, who ran the Juvenile league, had a sort-of unwritten agreement with me that if I stuck in, I’d get games with the oldest age group. I did that for another year or so and was then told that I’d need to do adults to ‘toughen you up.’ Another key figure in the Association for me was Brian Christie. He played a big part in my development. He’s a large guy with a big heart and a big personality who is not slow in coming forward. One of the first things he did was to get me into doing Sunday Welfare League games. I’d never heard of the Welfare League before. Anyway, I soon discovered it is similar to amateurs, with the games played at Hazelhead Park where there are lots of football pitches. I was told that the refs doing the other games would help if there were any problems, but my first game was a Cup tie which went to extra-time. The rest of them, the ones I was relying on to sort out any grief, all shoved off! That certainly did toughen me up.
“Looking back, I did a lot of matches. I didn’t realise just how many different levels and leagues there were in the area. For example, when I was doing Juvenile games on Saturday, I was also running the line for midweek Highland League Under-19s. That was voluntary; there was no pay, but the ref would get you chips on the way home. I had six months of that, then progressed to Highland League Under-21s. All this time as an Assistant helped me a lot. As an Assistant you get the chance to watch the refs and see what they are doing well (and badly!).
“In total, I did four years in Juvenile/Welfare football, then I was assessed and promoted to Category 4, which meant I started to referee Junior football (as opposed to being an Assistant). Today, there is a shortage of referees, but back then there were lots of us. Initially, I did First Division Junior games one week, which meant that I was on my own without any Assistants, and the next week I was an Assistant in the Juniors. Once I started to referee Premier Division Juniors I had Assistants, but the experience of trying to manage games without a linesman or woman helped develop me and toughen me up even further.”
Stuart Murphy, CEO, SFSA
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Tags: Refereeing