At 9:15pm Tuesday one of the last reminders of male dominance in the sporting world fell to the ground when referee Tony Bates was forced to leave the field with a calf strain, after which a petite woman with dark hair took over to help finish the Sky Blues’ game against Nottingham Forest.
Bates was replaced by his referee assistant, Amy Fearn, who is has now become the first woman to ever referee in a Football League game. The 31 year old from Loughborough who’s day job is as a Rolls Royce financial analyst is a part of feminist history that will have males re-evaluating their role in the sporting world.
This is not the first time than a woman has landed on a line, however as Postmistress Wendy Toms from Dorset was on the Premier League in the nineties and Fearn herself has also worked the line using her maiden name, Rayner, as an assistant for the last four years.
Fearn is certainly not a stranger to the game since she has been refereeing since age 14; however, it was still a leap for women in the sporting world. She stated that it was a great experience to get the chance to referee at a Football League and laughingly said that she could get used to being in charge every week.
She also added that she did not notice at the time that the crowd had reacted to the change, but was glad that nothing controversial occurred while she was in charge of the match for twenty minutes.