Official Kicks: Juhi Shah, referee in India

The Official Kicks slot, sponsored by the University of Gloucestershire, carries a first-person account from Indian referee Juhi Shah. Passionate about playing but seeing little scope to turn professional or represent her country, she took up refereeing at 17, approaching the Bombay Referees’ Association and being handed a girls’ Under-14 inter-school tournament as her first appointment. She still plays for local club Bodyline Sports and occasionally represents her state women’s team, which she says made refereeing easier because she already knew the basic laws. She now officiates inter-state girls’ tournaments and school and city matches for both sexes. Shah describes the satisfaction of controlling a game and the pride of calling herself a woman referee in India, where fewer than 30 are active, and recounts being selected in November 2013 for an Under-19 girls’ national tournament in Odisha, the first in India officiated entirely by women.