This season of women's football has seen referees' decisions questioned, the integrity of the game called into doubt, and demands for VAR. Here are some of the examples that made it to the headlines, where the women's game was scrutinised and criticised, and not for good things.
The first most notable incident happened in the biggest WSL game of the season, Arsenal v Chelsea at the Emirates. This rivalry is the biggest and longest in the league's history and will appear frequently on this list due to the narrow margin separating these two sides. The issues came with the lack of VAR. Stina Blakctsenius thought they had finally equalised, but the goal was disallowed after the referee ruled a handball in the build-up by the goalscorer. However, in hindsight, in a replay, it in fact came off her torso. The better practice would be for the Ref to remain unsure whether it was a handball and, without the ability to call on VAR, to award the goal. This was not the only controversial moment of the game. After finally getting the equaliser through Alessia Russo after great appeals of offside in the build-up, Frida Maanum thought she got a late winner. Still, it was disallowed again, reportedly for offside, but on replay, it was incredibly tight. The game ended 1-1, but the scoreline could have been completely different if there had been goal-line technology and VAR in the WSL. WSL will later see that, even with the technology, it does not always go correctly. Showing the wider issue in the level of training, the lack of refereeing being the ref's full-time job, especially for those administering the VAR. Something that has always been a hot topic in the men's game since technology was introduced to the Premier League is the number of human errors.
The next issue was again between these two sides; however, even with VAR, the decision was incorrect. At the Emirates Stadium, in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Arsenal and Chelsea, Chelsea suffered a major refereeing controversy when a goal by Veerle Buurman was disallowed. She scored a header from the set-piece, but it was immediately ruled out as Laia Codina jumped for the ball, did not get a touch on it, and went down. She claimed Buurman had pushed her in the build-up, which was not true. VAR reviewed it and did not deem it a serious and obvious error, though others would have suggested otherwise, and chose not to overturn the referee's decision. If this goal had been given, Chelsea would have taken Arsenal to extra time in the second leg. After the game, Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor strongly criticised the decision. She said she could not understand how VAR had not overturned the ruling and insisted that, in her view, it was “clearly a goal.” She also expressed frustration with repeated controversial decisions in high-level matches and called for better standards of officiating.
Former England captain Steph Houghton described the decision as “outrageous,” arguing that the goal should have stood. The incident contributed to wider criticism of refereeing standards in the women’s game, particularly in high-stakes European matches.
Bompastor also referenced other incidents in the tournament, including a previously disallowed goal by Catarina Macario against Barcelona, and claimed that Chelsea had repeatedly been affected by incorrect decisions. She suggested that elite-level referees, potentially drawn from the men’s game, should officiate in major women’s matches to improve consistency and competence.
The second leg saw no difference from the first, with VAR confusion. In the last minutes of the game, while Alysaa Thompson was breaking forward with the ball on the attack, Arsenal's Katie McCabe appeared to pull Thompson's hair from behind, though she said after she was going for the shirt when the hair was pulled. Despite the clear contact visible on replay and the ‘case law’ in the women's game that this is a red card offence in UEFA fixtures, VAR did not intervene, and the Irish captain got a big let-off, while Arsenal could have gone down to 10 players. Plus, if that goal in the first leg was given, Arsenal could have been taken to extra time with a player down, and these two isolated incidents could have cost Chelsea a place in the semi-final. After the match, Bompastor was highly critical of the decision and arrived for her media duties prepared with video evidence on her phone to demonstrate the incident. She stated that McCabe’s action was “clearly a red card” and questioned the purpose of VAR if such incidents were not being reviewed.
Alyssa Thompson was reportedly visibly emotional and upset after the incident. Arsenal manager Renée Slegers suggested the contact was likely unintentional; however, intent in this scenario does not mean not guilty. While former players and pundits also weighed in. Steph Houghton described the incident as “really cynical” and said it did not look good, while Fran Kirby expressed surprise that VAR had not intervened but suggested it may have been a shirt grab rather than intentional hair pulling.
The incident was also compared to similar cases in men’s football, including those involving Michael Keane, Jack Stephens, and João Neves, all of whom received red cards for hair-pulling incidents.
This situation is only made worse by the fact that, mere weeks later, in the same competition, between Barcelona and Bayern Munich, Franziska Ket was shown a red card for pulling Salma Paralluelos’ hair during a late-stage challenge. This left the team down to ten players. This was the same competition, same rules, same organisation, both had the same technology in place, but different outcomes. Why? Because different officials made human errors that, quite frankly, changed the game completely. The rules are not to be interpreted, and there is no point in having these expensive technologies in football, men or women, if they are not being used effectively to enforce the laws of the game.
From having the technology to not, Sam Kerr missed out on a hat-trick that would have made her Chelsea's all-time leading WSL goalscorer, outright surpassing Fran Kirby with 63 goals, but instead she only equalled the record. In a game against Everton, she met a cross with a header that struck the post. The ball then appeared to bounce over the line, and on replay, it most definitely did before Everton goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan managed to clear it away. Despite clear and strong identification, it had crossed the line; the linesperson did not award the goal, while it did not change the result or prevent the three points, it prevented a legacy from being cemented. Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor strongly criticised the decision after the match. She called for the introduction of goal-line technology in the Women’s Super League, arguing that decisions like this could have significant consequences in tighter matches or title races. She stated that the league is highly competitive and that technology is necessary to ensure fairness in key moments. Unlike VAR, goal line technology is expensive to build but cheaper to run, and it's more effective because it's fully automatic and doesn't rely on human decision-making; its decisions are based on fact rather than opinion, so that they won't be made incorrectly like VAR decisions.
Finally, as you can see, the common factor, except for the obvious poor decision, is Chelsea, as it happened again against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final. Ellie Carpenter made a run to the byline and managed to pull the ball back into the penalty area. At that moment, Manchester City players stopped playing, as they believed Carpenter had allowed the ball to go out of play before delivering the cross. They immediately appealed for a goal kick.
Despite the attacking move continuing, the assistant referee raised their flag, and the goal was ultimately disallowed. Sam Kerr had finished the move from very close range in a scramble situation, with the ball described as coming to her in the six-yard box, where she bundled or “tapped” it in, with contact to her midsection in the chaos of the moment.
However, the assistant referee ruled that the ball had gone out of play before Carpenter’s cross, awarding a goal kick to Manchester City instead of allowing the goal to stand. Replays of the incident suggested that the ball may not have fully crossed the line before being played back into the box, meaning the decision was highly controversial.
There was no VAR available in this match, meaning the decision could not be reviewed or overturned. This led to significant debate, as many observers believed that technology such as VAR or goal-line tracking should have been used to determine whether the ball had actually gone out of play. The incident was widely seen as a clear example of how major decisions in women’s football can be influenced by human error in the absence of technological support.
All of these are incidents and consistent patterns of errors made by referees due to a lack of high-quality training. What can be done is to make refereeing their full-time job, bring in high standards and training, and do the most logical, financially and economically sound thing: expand VAR and goal-line technology. At the same time, what the managers want is not necessarily the solution seen in the Champions League, and, due to its financial cost, it is not yet economical in the WSL.
Add comment
Comments