A rough tackle, the whistle blows and a foul is given.
“Get back in the kitchen!” the player yells at the referee.
It is one of the kinder things male players have said to Melany Bermejo, one of the rare women referees in the world of Latin American soccer.
Photo: AFP
Shoved, spat at, insulted and flirted with on the field, she and a handful of other women are nevertheless close to the top of their profession in men’s games.
“You have to make double the effort a man makes,” said Lixy Enriquez, 42, an assistant referee in Mexico.
Bermejo, a 37-year-old physical education teacher, has served as referee at second-division men’s games in her native Peru.
Like most of her female counterparts around the world, she has yet to break into the top league, where so far women serve only as lineswomen or fourth officials.
There are exceptions.
In Uruguay, Claudia Umpierrez, 33, made her top-flight debut in February as a referee in men’s games.
In Venezuela, Emikar Caldera and Yersinia Correa have been refereeing such games for three years.
Outside Latin America, Gladys Lengwe of Zambia is among the few women to have reached the top level as a referee. In Ukraine, Kateryna Monzul is expected to do the same.
World soccer governing body FIFA has 720 women registered as referees for professional games — 324 main referees and 396 assistants.
However, of 209 national federations, 60 have no female referees registered, according to FIFA data.
“For the time being, the women work mainly in women’s and youth football or in games with reserve teams, or men’s games of indoor football,” said Carlos Coradina, director of a referees’ training college in Argentina.
Peruvian Referees’ Commission president Julio Arevalo denied that the system was sexist.
Anyone who passes the tests set for male referees by FIFA and South American football governing body CONMEBOL can do the job, he said.
Those who want to referee men’s matches must be fit enough to keep up with top male athletes charging up and down the field.
“Male football is very fast and the players are very skilled,” said Loreto Toloza, 32, a female assistant referee in Chile.
However, when a woman does make the grade, an different challenge begins.
The worst insults from the stands come from women, Enriquez said.
The male fans yell: “I want to take home the assistant,” she said.
The reception on the field is not always better.
When Virginia Tovar became the first woman to referee a top-league men’s match in Mexico in 2004, star player Cuauhtemoc Blanco reportedly yelled at her: “Go and wash the dishes.”
In Argentina, referee Salome di Iorio says players have asked her to take down their phone numbers when she gets out her notebook. Others just spit at her.
The pressure of verbal abuse turns the job into a psychological as well as a physical challenge.
“Some players do not want female referees and are not adapting to the idea,” Peruvian referee Johanna Vega said.
“I am very serious when I come onto the field,” she said. “You have to be a psychologist” to put up with the insults.
However, the concern over physical altercations remains.
“One player jumped on me when I gave a foul and he didn’t like it,” said Tatiana Guzman, a 28-year-old referee in Nicaragua.
“There is always the fear that someone foolish will do that,” she said. “You have to be ready to run.”
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