A female WSL official alleged this week in a court hearing that she was denied better job opportunities after raising a complaint about a male referee coach’s behavior in 2023.
According to ESPN, Lisa Benn was refereeing a U19 game organized by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to train staff and officials on a new video assistance technology when Steve Child, a PGMOL coach and former Premier League assistant referee, pushed her, told her “your card has been marked,” and grabbed her arm.
"I've never had somebody shout down the comms to tell me how to referee — I am a trusted referee, I referee at the highest level, this was an under-19s game," Benn said. "He felt superior, he felt like he could come on and tell me how to referee, he manhandled me on to the field of play — he would never have done that to a male referee."
Benn said that the organization’s chief refereeing officer and its head of women’s referees both assured her that she wouldn’t be punished for coming forward with her complaints, but Benn was later left off FIFA’s international referee list.
Before this week’s court hearing, Benn’s case was dismissed by a PGMOL investigation that found Child’s behavior “did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action.”
"He made me feel inferior to me, as a referee and as a human being, and that's not okay,” Benn said in court.
Despite Benn’s explanations, Jesse Crozier, representing PGMOL, pushed back. "If you had been dragged, grabbed and pushed at a training tournament with dozens and dozens of people, someone would have seen it.”
Benn maintains that she was “manhandled” by Child, spoken down to, and pushed, and that she has seen him treat other female officials in a similar manner. The hearing in employment court will continue.
