At 3 a.m. on December 2, 2022, Beijing time, the group match between the German team and Costa Rica team started. This is a life-and-death battle. Before this, the German team ranked last in the group with 1 point, while Costa Rica team defeated and in the second round of the group stage to score 3 points. Both teams retain the possibility of advancing to the knockout stage.
But the reason why this game has attracted attention is more than that. This is the first time in the history of the World Cup that has been enforced by an all-female referee group. The referee team is headed by Stephanie Flapal from France - she is also the first female referee in World Cup history. Neuza Buck from Brazil and Karen Dias from Mexico serve as assistant referees. FIFA chose American Katherine Nesbitt as the video referee, and she will be responsible for the video judgment of offside and other actions.
Stephanie Flapal was in the first round of the Group C group stage of the Qatar World Cup. (Visual China/Photo)
There are many questions that followed: As a woman, the referee group, especially the referee, can her physical strength and speed match the intensity of the World Cup? How much does their gender play in the World Cup?
From the origins of modern football, it emphasizes masculinity and authority. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, football became popular in British schools. The violent movement in ancient times once caused uneasiness among schools, but they later realized that it could be used to develop a sense of healthy body and teamwork for men. Since then, football has become a leisure activity for the children of nobles in the school.
1848, the "Cambridge Code" became a rule constraint for football matches in universities. As football went to a larger scale, in 1863, the English Football Association, which aimed at "drafting a clear set of rules to regulate football", was established, which is also considered the birth of modern football. The formulation of these rules is dominated and promoted by men's discourse system of rights.
After the rise of the British working class, football was also popular in this group, especially the men, who were brave and ruthless and fierce on the green field and were free to show off their courageous and fierce side. This group has always emphasized hard work, courage and tenacity, but inevitably, they have a high-ranking contempt towards women, and it is difficult to make much change in the context of women's marginalization in football. In today's era of popularization and professionalization of football, the gender bias brought about by the class nearly two centuries ago has not been eradicated.
Faced with doubts, Stephanie, the first female referee of the World Cup, seemed particularly confident: "If I was appointed as the referee of this level of competition by FIFA, it means that I have the corresponding abilities, and I fully believe in this." She believes that there is no difference between men and women's competitions, because the rules of football are the same, and the only difference is the team's game style. But she also said that compared with the male referee, she does not have the advantage in terms of physical fitness, but the competition will not lower the standards. She must pass the same physical ability test as the male referee.
Qatar World Cup group stage first round, Portugal captain C Ronaldo (left) took a photo with female referee Stephanie Flapal (middle). (Visual China/Photo)
Stephanie's resume can further dispel public doubts. She has been a football referee since she was 13 years old. After a series of studies, she has served as a referee in the French National Under-19 League during college. Afterwards, it took her eight years from becoming the first female referee in the third-level French league to enforcing the French Ligue 1 league, and then to becoming the first female referee in the history of Ligue 1 . After that, she became the first female referee in history to enforce the law in the men's football team in European Cup and European Champions League .
It can be seen that Stephanie's efforts are no less than other male referees. What she lacks is not ability, but opportunity. FIFA referee committee chairperson Corina said: “The female referees are not here because of their female identity, but because they are FIFA game officials, and we are considering the quality of enforcement rather than gender."
Qatar World Cup Group Stage Third round, Stephanie Flapal served as the referee in the match between Germany and Costa Rica. (Visual China/Photo)
But the sport of football is always inevitably linked to gender. After all, it is a product derived from the male context, and its subsequent development is mostly dominated by male will. Therefore, the fierce physical confrontation in football is regarded as a major display of masculinity and has also become an important evaluation standard for its ornamentality. . Players fall to the ground due to physical confrontation, and may even be regarded as weak or performance-oriented. For example, during the 2018 World Cup, in the match against Serbia , Neymar fell to the ground after the opponent's flying tackle and rolled for seven or eight laps before stopping, which attracted a large number of fans to mock him for being "not manly enough". women's football also has the stereotype of that is weak in confrontation and not ornamental enough, which makes them unable to attract as many as men's football games for a long time Audience. But this confrontational viewing standard was initially attached through the perspective of male audiences, but now it has become a bound tag.
Compared with men's football, women's football has developed slowly and is difficult to get rid of the influence of the discourse system of male rights. In 1894, the first women's football club in the UK was established. Initially, most games were organized spontaneously among women, and each club sets rules to play. This situation lasted for about 40 years. During World War I, A large number of men went to the battlefield, while women worked in the rear, which gave them more opportunities to participate in football. In 1920, the British women's football team Dick Kerr and St. Helens matched up to 53,000 spectators. But after the war, women gradually retreated back to their families.
, the British man who created the world's first known women's football club, was later called the pioneer of British women's football. Honeyball literally translated as "Dear Ball", In fact, it was her pseudonym. (Visual China/Photo)
1921, the English Football Association announced that football was not suitable for women and prohibited women's football teams from playing on the venues belonging to the English Football Association. Under the social order of male parent-made at that time, the image established by football was masculine and strong. Women's participation in football was considered to weaken the value of football. It was not until 1984 that this ban was abolished by the English Football Association.
April 22, 2022, The world record of the number of spectators in women's football matches was refreshed at the Camp Nou Stadium in Spain, reaching 91,648. This is the first leg of the Barcelona women's football team's UEFA Champions League semi-finals home against Wolfsburg . At the same time, the number of spectators in the 21 home games of Barcelona men's football team in the season has not exceeded 90,000. (Visual China/Photo) Although gender bias has changed, it still exists. When people were surprised to find that the number of spectators in a female professional football match in 2022 set a world record , the U.S. national women's football team still can only get half of the national men's football team's salary in the World Cup.
Return to female referees, when people are happy about the historic breakthrough in the Qatar World Cup, don't forget that World Cup has been around 92 years - nearly a century before the first female referee appeared. Among the 36 referees this time, only 3 women are women, accounting for about 8%.
The more common bias of
may also lie in the attitude towards female audiences. The dissemination of mass media has led to the regulation Talk about female audiences has become a "normal rationalization". During the World Cup, "teaching girlfriends to watch football" always becomes a hot topic of discussion. With this strategy and other entries on social media, such as "I was taught a lesson by my girlfriend during the World Cup", various jokes about female audiences have made stereotypes constantly solidified in the spread. In the world of male-dominated football, women have long been in a position to be commented. In fact, there are not a few female audiences, and they are not ignorant of football, but are in a weak context due to long-term accumulated prejudice.
In the early morning of December 3, 2022, Beijing time, in the third round of Group G of Qatar World Cup, female fans were dressed up with visual elements of the Brazilian team. (Visual China/Photo)
In contrast, looking at the context of some male audiences, it seems that you have to do a study on the "ontology" of football, looking at the skills, tactics, formations, and rules, and other extensional views brought by football are not considered respectful to football. Among them, what this group of people most seems to be paying attention to the players' appearance and figure. And they usually compare this behavior with female audiences, which allows them to comment on the other side of gender from a high level of discourse system they have built. They do not know that this system itself is not a criterion, and the comparison is only because of their own narrowness. Besides, football should be three-dimensional, and no one stipulates which aspect of it must be from to enjoy the fun.
The final whistle sounded, Stephanie ended the match between Germany and Costa Rica, both teams missed the knockout round, and Stephanie's World Cup referee journey has just begun. When gender is not enough to be a topic of conversation, maybe that is the real progress, and each of us can better return to the fun brought by football.
At 3:00 am on December 2, 2022, Beijing time, the group match between the German team and Costa Rica team in the Qatar World Cup, the men's football team welcomed the all-female referee group for the first time in the history of the World Cup men's football team. (Visual China/Photo)
Southern Weekend Reporter Weng Rongrong
