Serie A appoint first female referee for next season
Football
By
Reuters
| Jul 02, 2022
Italy's Serie A has appointed Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi for the 2022-23 season as its first female referee.
The 31-year-old Ferrieri Caputi became the first female to referee a match involving a Serie A team last year - Cagliari’s Italian Cup clash with Cittadella.
She will now referee a top-flight match for the first time next term after joining the league's officiating team on Friday.
"It’s a very beautiful moment and one of great satisfaction and it’s also sad to think that someone should be amazed by the presence of a woman,” said Alfredo Trentalange, president of the referees’ governing body in Italy.
“Obviously it’s news that Maria Sole will be the first woman in the Serie A pool, and it’s a historical moment, but the promotion is an advancement that comes from merit and not from privilege.”
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Ferrieri joined the referees’ association in 2007, working in the provincial and regional leagues, before she started officiating Serie D matches in 2015.
Her next step came in 2019 when she oversaw two Women’s European Championship qualifying games and, the following year, began refereeing Serie C matches, plus one Serie B clash between Cittadella and SPAL, before Cagliari's Coppa Italia encounter.