Janie Frampton, Sasa Ihringova and Natalie Walker travelled to Chile in November to lend their refereeing expertise in the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup - the first time England has had female representation at the tournament.
Shropshire official, Sasa, who took charge of this season's FA Women's Community Shield, refereed the World Cup Final between USA and North Korea.
Natalie was the Assistant Referee for the Third/Fourth place Play-Off between France and Germany, while Frampton, an FA Regional Refereeing Manager, was called upon to analyse the performance of the referee in each of the 32 matches.
Before the tournament began, each referee took part in a pre-tournament workshop, where the focus was on fitness, technical training and theory sessions on Law, application, regulations and match preparation.
“The appointment is just the beginning of the journey,” says Sasa. “There are rigorous tests to go through including daily training sessions and meetings. Full concentration is required for the duration of the event.”
Sasa’s first appointment was the Group C match between Canada and Japan and she also donned the black kit for Brazil’s Group D encounter against Mexico.
“After the steady performance in the two group games,” explains Sasa, “I thought I might have been in the running for one of the decisive games. At that stage of the tournament it was not only about performance; we all knew we needed a little luck as to who the remaining teams were in the tournament.
“In the Final, fortunately, the teams played very well and there were no major incidents or contentious decisions. Leaving the field I was pleased with the way it went and I was relieved to receive confirmation of this from the FIFA staff present.”
Natalie too, was delighted with how the tournament went on an individual level:
“Coming to an event like this makes all the hard work on a Saturday afternoon in rainy England so much more worthwhile and makes Contributory League games on New Year’s Day a little more bearable!
“I am so proud to have represented my country,” she said.