Sasa Ihringova — England’s Top Female Referee

An interview with Sasa Ihringova, England’s premier female referee. Born in Slovakia into a sporting family with a FIFA referee uncle, she resisted his encouragement for a long time because of the abuse she heard him take, and admits she would still be playing if she had been any good. Nominated to the FIFA list in 2001 at 26, she took her first A international, Germany against Portugal, the same year. Ihringova moved to England to escape a football overload and landed in the most football-obsessed country going; she now referees around 50 games a season, mostly in men’s football as a Football League assistant and Contributory League referee, plus the Women’s Premier League and international fixtures. She discusses fitness, her lucky blue whistle, coping with personal insults, learning from Sonia Denoncourt and Kati Elovirta, and her ambition to referee a World Cup final.