Official Kicks: Chloe Matthews

Chloe Matthews took a refereeing course at fourteen with a group from her grassroots team and started the following season in a boys’ youth league on Sundays while still playing on Saturdays. She is now a Level 5 referee working across men’s regional football and the women’s National League, and an assistant in the Championship. Her first straight red card is the moment she describes in most detail: a nasty tackle ten minutes into a calm game, an instant certainty that it was a red, and then several things to manage at once – the fouled player, remembering who did it, and the players arriving. Refereeing, she says, took a quiet teenager and gave her communication skills and confidence.