When Rebecca Welch becomes the first woman to referee the Premier League in Fulham’s match against Burnley on Saturday, it won’t be the first time Craven Cottage has hosted a history moment for women working in football.
On 21 April 2007, in another top-flight match for Thames against Lancashire rivals – this time with Blackburn Rovers – broadcaster Jacqui Oatley made her Match of the Day commentary for the first time and many people rose to their feet.
Speaking to Telegraph Sport, Oatley says he is pleased society has “moved forward” to avoid the media furore that accompanied articles criticizing Welch’s appointment in 2007 with ‘From Motty to Totty’ headlines.
“I was commenting at the time [Radio] It wasn’t entirely unusual for a 5 Live commentator to be asked to do Match of the Day on 5 Live, so I didn’t think much of it. [initially]. “Then I thought, ‘wait a minute, I hope there won’t be any public outcry here,’ because frankly I could live without any of this,” Oatley says. “I was hoping it would stay nice and quiet. But that was wishful thinking.
“Unfortunately, it was reflected in the public opinion in a national newspaper. Then one morning I woke up and heard my name on the radio at the top of the hour and was thinking ‘oh my god’. It has become a big story with controversies and sexism discussions. A former top flight manager and an influential newspaper reporter had said they were against it and I found that quite insulting. I was feeling on my own.
“I was living on my own and single at the time and in the eye of a storm and all I wanted to do was just focus on my preparation and instead I made the mistake of wasting time politely declining every interview. I never wanted to be the story, so I said ‘no’ to everything. I couldn’t really sleep and “I didn’t really eat for a few days. My stomach was in knots. It was like my brain was a mushy pea trying to get through the day and hopefully not get scolded too much.”
Oatley, who was given a jersey as a gift in the tunnel before the match by Fulham, who introduced him to sponsors on the match day, adds: “It was really weird to have a line of photographers turning around and taking my photo. in the portal. Even the referee that day, Graham Poll, gave me a thumbs up and wished me luck. It was so surreal.
“I definitely felt a sense of responsibility in the back of my mind; If people don’t like me, then in the future they will dislike all female commentators and will unilaterally decide that women cannot commentate on football/sport. So I said to myself ‘do the best job you can’.
“I thought, ‘If I can get through this, hopefully get through it unscathed, and get another chance with my sleep intact, then that would be great,’ and thankfully it happened a few times over the months.”
‘This is coming; It’s not a big bolt that comes out of nowhere.’
Welch has been a pioneer among female referees for many years, becoming the first woman to referee an EFL match in 2021 when she took charge of the match between Harrogate Town and Port Vale, and subsequently became the first woman to take center stage in the men’s FA Cup third-place finish. Round tie against Plymouth Argyle at Birmingham City in 2022. Since then she has worked in the Women’s World Cup and regularly takes charge of men’s matches in the Championship as well as Women’s Super League fixtures.
Oatley said of Welch: “What he has achieved is magnificent and it is on merit.” “This appointment was coming up. All of a sudden it’s not such a big deal because he’s worked his way up the system and if he doesn’t think Howard Webb can hack him, there’s no way he can hold him accountable. And he’s got a lot of people supporting him.”
“He’ll focus on doing the best he can every weekend, just like he does every game, and hopefully he’ll think, ‘I’m doing this every week.’ He certainly doesn’t need my advice because he is an excellent referee and referee, but control the things you can control and just smile at the rest. You should smile because it is an experience.
“And there’s so much controversy about refereeing at the moment that if she makes a mistake it’s not because she’s a woman, right? Absolutely.
‘Football benefits from having more female referees’
The coincidence of both having their moment in history at Craven Cottage did not go unnoticed by Oatley, who thought it would help Welch, adding: “Fulham are a lovely club to deal with. It’s one of my favorite places to go. They’re a good group of fans and a good scene.” The people behind him will treat him very well.
“And I think we’ve made a lot of progress in terms of attitudes in society. I don’t think he will be judged on whether he can referee or not because he has already proven that every week.
“That’s why I want to pay tribute to the work that Women in Football has done over all these years; They contributed greatly to this situation becoming the norm rather than front page news. As a sport, we have been continuing our path since 2007.
“Football now benefits from having more female referees. Because football needs more officials. The game as a whole is better off having such abilities rather than just taking abilities from half the population. Little girls watching Match of the Day this weekend will look at Welch and say ‘maybe I can do this, how can I start this journey?’ “We need them to think.”
‘Women only want to be judged by our values’
Another thing that’s pleasing for Oatley is that there are more women commentating on football these days, so she says: “There was some good that came out of me taking that knock, if you like, and it was extremely unpleasant. If it means other women can deal with it, I’m really grateful.” I’m happy because I wouldn’t want this [unpleasantness] in any of them. That’s why I’m really happy when I hear a woman comment.
“Football as a sport has completely changed. It’s not all white men sitting at home watching football anymore. That was traditionally the image. But not now. The sport now has a very diverse audience.
“Hopefully we’re at a point now where listeners don’t even realize the commentator is female, and if they’re not your favorite that’s okay, but you can’t denigrate an entire genre based on one genre.” You don’t like a woman’s private comment. Women in all walks of life want to be judged solely on our merits.”