Rebecca Welch, from Beckham's influence to Guardiola's welcome

Ten thousand British referees in various categories have thrown in the towel in the last five years due to threats and abuse. And yet, a woman, Rebecca Welch, 40 years old, has decided to swim against the current and become the Premier's first referee, oblivious to the toxic atmosphere that is breathed on the fields and in the stands.

Just two weeks ago, she had to endure a chorus of misogynistic chants at the Birmingham-Sheffield match. The match was momentarily interrupted and two teenagers were arrested as the perpetrators of the offenses against the referee, who remained steadfast in her work, convinced as she is that “idiots are a minority.”

Football ran through her veins since her childhood in Washington, Tyne and Wear, a city of 70,000 inhabitants in the north of England that claims to be the land of President George Washington's ancestors. Becks Welch came to play in the lower categories of women's football in the Sunderland area, inspired among others by 

She won competitive exams as an administrator in the National Health System (NHS), although her passion was still very much alive, to the point of simultaneously studying to become a referee for the Durham County Football Association. What began as a part-time hobby, on weekends, ended up becoming her main occupation starting in 2019, when she finally resigned from her permanent position to dedicate herself to professional refereeing with all the consequences of it.

Her debut on the Fulham field

A year later she whistled the final of the Women's FA Cup at Wembley, and that same summer she established herself in the Women's Euro 2022, finally conquered by the lionesses of England in her own home. In the last Women's World Cup won by Spain, she was also one of the most requested referees, recognized for her extraordinary physical fitness and for her “thick skin” in the face of abuse and insults. On November 4, she already marked a milestone as the fourth member of the refereeing team between Manchester United and Fulham. And this Saturday she will undoubtedly be the main attraction at Fulham's field, Craven Cottage, in the match against Burnley that will go down in history as the first referee by a woman in a Premier match.