The whistleblowers

At the ongoing Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, all eyes in India are on its 500-odd participating athletes. Regardless of who wins or loses, two Indian women already have the nation swelling with pride. Maria Rebello and Uvena Fernandes from the south Goan towns of Curtorim and Palolem, respectively, are the first Indian women to officiate at the Asian Games. Together with referees from other Asian countries, Fernandes and Rebello will have control of the 13 women’s football games.

“I never give a second thought before showing a card,” Rebello had said, when we contacted her earlier over the telephone just as she was preparing to take the field for a Goa Professional League game. “I remember, sometime back, there was a local match where I red carded a player. The captain asked whether I’d send him off too if he cursed at me. I said ‘yes’. He cursed. I showed him red. I take no rubbish from players.”

Referees by choice

According to Laws of the Game , a handbook of football rules issued by FIFA every year, the referee is responsible for enforcing the laws during a match. “He or she is the final decision-making authority on all facts connected with play, and is the only official on the pitch with the authority to start and stop play and impose disciplinary action against players during the match.” Sticklers for rules and unfazed by opposition — these women clearly fit the bill.

“Both my brothers used to play a lot of football; my younger brother played for Vasco (a Goan club). Growing up, I played with them all the time,” says Rebello. At 42, she is the country’s senior-most woman referee, officiating in 40 to 55 matches a year. Apart from the Goa Professional League, she has refereed in I-league matches, international friendly games and Asian-level junior tournaments in her 13-year career. The Incheon event will be her biggest yet.

For Fernandes, 31, whose hometown is only 41km from Rebello’s, football has always been a passion.“I have heard that my father, who passed away when I was only two years old, was a great football player. So maybe my interest in the game comes from him,” she says. As a flight lieutenant with the Indian Air Force, she juggles dual careers. Like Rebello, she too grew up playing the game in Goa, and while she continued her formal education, she had one boot in the football pitch at all times.

Both women have represented their State and the country on various occasions, besides holding fleeting careers in football clubs. Captaining India at the AFC Women’s Championship in 1997, Rebello played in a memorable match where they lost 1-0 to Japan and the chance to enter the semi-finals. Japan had earlier routed the other group teams, Hong Kong and Guam, 9-0 and 21-0 respectively.

At the end of her playing career in 2001, Rebello decided to remain in the game by qualifying with the Bombay Refereeing Association. “I didn’t want to be a coach. Those people sit outside in the technical area. I wanted to be out on the pitch, and so I decided to pursue refereeing,” she says. She has since acquired FIFA certification badges and, until Fernandes joined in recently, was the sole internationally listed woman referee from India.

Fernandes kicked off her refereeing career in 2003 after a short playing stint. A regular at the prestigious Subroto Cup tournament in Delhi every year, she also handles I-league games, the Durand Cup and the Santosh Trophy tournaments among others.

A step ahead

Getting a bunch of pro-footballers to play by the rules is certainly no walk in the park. “It is difficult and one needs to be prepared. Sometimes we ask them politely, but if that doesn’t work we also raise our voice,” says Rebello. “Having played the game, I know how a player thinks and my experience over the years also helps. For international games, I try to learn the basic words in the languages of those countries, but body language itself speaks volumes, anyway.”

Gautam Kar, the head of referees department at the All India Football Federation (AIFF), is excited about the Indian women referees’ Incheon outing and optimistic about the future of women’s football. “This is the first time women’s football is getting some sort of attention,” he says. “Both women are hard workers and I’m a great fan of Maria (Rebello) especially. She has inspired so many other women to take up the profession and achieved what many men in the game can only dream of.”

India has around 100 women referees. Earlier this year, the under-19 national women’s championship in Cuttack was the first tournament to be officiated entirely by women.

While Rebello’s football dreams are made of many more games at the national and international levels, Fernandes is aiming for an even bigger goal. “My dream is to officiate in the women’s World Cup. They have to nominate you though, so I guess the only way I can get there is to keep working hard, and maybe I’ll get the call one day.”

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