Brazilian Football: Female Referees Making The Beautiful Game Even More So

Ana Paula Oliveira has been a professional referee since 1999. Her passion for the profession started as far back as age 14 when she would follow her father on his amateur referee outings.

She primarily works as a lines-lady, and claims to use her good hearing and a kind of frozen vision to catch offside offenders. Ana says she never looks at where the ball comes from, relying solely on hearing to determine the moment of the pass.

According to some leading ophthalmologists women have a better ability to petrify an image whereas men tend to look ahead. So apart from being much more attractive, a lines-lady may actually be able to do a better job.

However, Ana may not be the best example of women in this profession as she has committed several mistakes while working as the main referee in decisive matches for the Brazilian Championship (First Division), and as a result was subsequently reduced to doing only fourth division matches and only in Sao Paulo.

After this she made things even worse by posing for Playboy magazine and was subsequently removed from the FIFA list of referees as well.  She was then suspended in Brazil where it was alleged she was also not up to scratch physically—in the fitness sense of the word.

Many other less controversial women referees work in Brazil such as Ivone Oliveira. She dreams of handling a match in the World Cup, which will be held there in 2014.

In order to achieve this, Ivone knows that she must first handle a Fluminense vs Flamengo derby and possibly be called to the Olympics as well. 

She works hard everyday to try to reach the new FIFA fitness requirements in a bid to realize her dreams. Only time will tell if she can make history in 2014.

Women referees have been present in the Sao Paulo, Rio, and Brazilian Championships for quite some time. There have even been Libertadores matches handled by them as well.

They have added a most beautiful touch to the already beautiful game.

What do you, the reader and football fan, think about this development in the sport?