Referee reports harassment and shove by coach: Case shakes women’s football

A prominent officer has stated before a court that she was pushed by a soccer referee coach and that her behavior was influenced by her gender. Lisa Benn, 34, claimed to have been harassed and unfairly lost her position as an international referee after filing a complaint. The Women’s Super League (WSL) official reported that she was groped on a playing field in 2023 by Steve Child, a coach for Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) and former Premier League assistant referee. During his testimony before an employment tribunal in south London, Benn alleged that Child also told him “I’ve got you marked”. A PGMOL investigation determined that Child’s behavior did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action. Ms. Benn alleges that the organization’s head of arbitration, Howard Webb, and his wife Bibi Steinhaus-Webb, who was then the head of female referees, said she would not be punished for reporting. However, in his statement, he wrote that, after his complaint, PGMOL did not recommend him as favorably as it had previously. Ms. Benn stated that this cost her a prestigious place on the FIFA international referees list. A tournament organized by PGMOL took place to train staff on VAR, which was not yet used in women’s football, on March 29, 2023. The program was delayed due to a serious injury and Ms. Benn said that Child took a leadership role, but “was nervous, stressed, running around everywhere”. Ms. Benn stated that the coach grabbed her arm and “pushed her hard” onto the field. She acknowledged that Child said “something like ‘come on, come on’ to speed up the start of the game, and said that she responded by putting her palm up and telling him to “calm down”. Jesse Crozier, from PGMOL, asked him: “By saying ‘come on, come on’, would you have put your arm behind you and pushed her onto the field at the same time?” Ms. Benn rejected the statement, saying: “That definitely didn’t happen.”

The atmosphere during the match was tense and Child instructed a fourth official, Ruby Sykes, to tell Ms. Benn to “kill the game”, according to the court. This caused Ms. Benn to say “don’t tell me how to arbitrate” and “go to hell”, which was directed at Child but spoken through a communication system to Sykes, the panel said. “I’ve never had someone yelling over the communication system to tell me how to referee; I’m a trusted referee, I referee at the highest level, this was an under-19 match,” said Ms. Benn. Later she added: “He felt superior, he felt he could come and tell me how to referee, he groped me on the field; I would never have done that to a male referee.” Crozier asked her: “It seems that she is offended because the refereeing coach gives her training instructions while she is refereeing.” She replied: “It was a distraction because, as you mentioned, the game was difficult, the game was challenging; there were many things happening in the game that required my attention.” Ms. Benn said that she was also adapting to “new VAR principles” that were not familiar to her. He got emotional when he later told the panel: “He made me feel inferior, as a referee and as a human being, and that’s not okay.” When asked if he had seen him act that way with other referees, he said: “I’ve seen it with female referees, yes, I haven’t seen it with male referees.” The official said there was a “massive fight” at the end of the game, caused by a player who headbutted another. Child then grabbed her arm and said “I have you marked” and “you are stubborn”, he said. “He was so angry that his eyes were popping out of his head,” he told the panel. Ms. Benn admitted that, in response, “she shouted ‘What’s your problem?’ in his direction”. “He didn’t turn around, he just left,” he said. Crozier asked: “If she had been dragged, grabbed, and pushed in a training tournament with dozens and dozens of people, someone would have seen it.” She said there would be video recordings of the event, but she hasn’t seen any. The lawyer said that such an incident “would have been noticed, wouldn’t it?” She replied: “No, I don’t agree”. The trial continues.