La Liga To Introduce First Ever Female Official Next Season
2nd July 2019
Guadalupe Porras Ayuso, a 32-year-old assistant referee, will become the first woman ever to officiate in the league.
- La Liga is set to have its first female official next season, the Spanish Football Federation announced on Tuesday
- Another female referee, Marisa Villa, was named in La Liga's list in 2007 but did not passed the physical tests required to officiate a match.
- Porras Ayuso has worked in Segunda, the men's second division, for two seasons and before that officiated for eight seasons in Segunda B, the third division in Spain
MADRID, Spain-
La Liga is set to have its first female official next season, the Spanish
Football Federation announced on Tuesday.
Guadalupe Porras
Ayuso, a 32-year-old assistant referee, will become the first woman ever to
officiate in the league.
"The assistant
referee will be the first woman to debut in the top flight," the RFEF said
in a statement.
Another female
referee, Marisa Villa, was named in La Liga's list in 2007 but did not passed
the physical tests required to officiate a match.
Porras Ayuso has
worked in Segunda, the men's second division, for two seasons and before that
officiated for eight seasons in Segunda B, the third division in Spain.
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Her promotion is
another boost for gender equality in Spanish football, following a year of
unprecedented interest in the women's game.
A European record
crowd of 60,739 watched Barcelona play Atletico Madrid in Liga Iberdrola at the
Metropolitano in March.
And Spain made its
best ever run at the Women's World Cup last month, reaching the last 16 before
losing to the United States.