By Mathias Habal-Shore, Y11
On Wednesday the 2nd of December, 2020, a French referee named Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to ever referee a Champions league match, the most prestigious European football tournament. The 36-year-old took charge of Juventus’ Group G match against Dynamo Kiev in Turin, with the Italian side winning 3-0 with goals from Federico Chiesa, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Alvaro Morata.
It was not Frappart’s first top-level European game; however, she became the first woman to referee a men’s European final. She officiated the UEFA Super Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool in the summer of 2019. Frappart also broke barriers in France, when she took charge of Amiens vs Strasbourg in April of 2019, becoming the first woman to officiate a League 1 game.
These recent debuts on the biggest stage of football for women coincide with those happening in the rest of the world, as we are also witnessing women in roles that they have never been in before, notably Kamala Harris, the first ever female vice president of the United States.
