Nicole Petignat (born October 27, 1966, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland) is a Swiss former football referee. In August 2003 she became the first female referee of a men's football match organized by UEFA; AIK Fotboll (SWE) versus Fylkir (ISL) in the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup.
Petignat passed her youth in the canton of Jura. She started to take courses of arbitration in 1983 and consecutively climbed all the levels leading to the arbitration in the national League A (later the Swiss Super League). Petignat is one of only few female referees to work in professional male football with matches in the first Swiss and Austrian Bundesliga league. Altogether, Petignat refereed 91 Swiss first league matches and in May 2007 the final of the Swiss Cup – FC Basel versus FC Lucerne. Her experience was also recognized when she became the first woman to referee a male UEFA Cup tie in 2003.
In July 1999 in Los Angeles she refereed the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup between the United States and China. She controversially failed to penalise American goalkeeper Brianna Scurry for moving forward off her goal-line during the penalty shoot-out. In September 2000, she refereed in the women's football tournament at the Olympic Games of Sydney and in 2001 she was in charge of the UEFA Women's Euro final; Germany versus Sweden. Later she refereed at the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Women's Euro 2005 and the Women's World Cup 2007.
As a player, Petignat played up to second division level in Switzerland. She lives in Watt, in the canton of Zurich, where she is a medical masseuse. From 2000 to 2006 she lived together with the Swiss referee Urs Meier. In December 2008, Petignat resigned as a referee.
| Referees |
|
|---|---|
| Assistant referees |
|
| Fourth officials | |
| Fifth officials | |
| Video assistant referees |
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak of SARS in that country forced that event to be moved to the United States. FIFA immediately granted the 2007 event to China, which meant that no new host nation was chosen competitively until the voting was held for the 2011 Women's World Cup.
The 2005 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2005, was a football tournament for women held from 5 June to 19 June 2005 in Lancashire, England and Cheshire, England. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tournament involving European national teams from countries affiliated to UEFA, the European governing body, who have qualified for the competition. The competition aims to determine which national women's team is the best in Europe.
Nadine Marejke Angerer is a German football coach and player who is the former goalkeeping player-coach for Portland Thorns of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL).
Frank De Bleeckere is a Belgian former football referee. He had been a referee since 1984, and an international (FIFA) official since 1998. De Bleeckere refereed in his first World Cup finals in Germany, and had to pass a late fitness test following injury. He had been appointed by UEFA as one of twelve referees to officiate UEFA Euro 2008 matches, and was in charge of the semi-final between Spain and Russia.
Massimo Busacca is a Swiss former football referee, who is FIFA Director of Refereeing, overseeing the protection of football’s core values and the continuous improvement of the game through the development of match officials and referee coaches. He lives in Monte Carasso, Ticino, Switzerland, near Bellinzona.
The UEFA Women's Cup 2006–07 was the sixth edition of the UEFA Women's Cup football club tournament. 43 teams from 42 football associations took part, starting with the first qualifying round played on 8 and 18 August 2006. The tournament ended with Arsenal L.F.C. of England emerging out as the winners in the final after a 1–0 aggregate win over Umeå IK of Sweden; this was the first and only time a British club had claimed the trophy.
Wendy Ann Toms is an English former football referee from Broadstone, Dorset who has officiated in the Football League and then the Premier League, both as an assistant referee. She was the first female ever to fulfil such roles at those levels. She also served for FIFA on the women's international list. Her other occupation is as a parcel post manager.
One of the most popular sports in Liechtenstein is football. In Liechtenstein there is no national association football league however there are seven clubs in Liechtenstein which play in the Swiss football league system.
Sonia Bompastor is a French football manager and former player who currently manages Chelsea of the English Women's Super League. She is the first person to win the UEFA Women's Champions League as both a player and a manager.
The 2007 UEFA Women's Cup Final was played on 21 and 29 April 2007 between Arsenal of England and Umeå of Sweden. It was the first final not to feature German teams since the 2003 final. Arsenal won 1–0 on aggregate.
Sian Louise Massey-Ellis is an English football match official who officiates generally in the role of assistant referee in the Premier League and the Football League. She has also been appointed to matches in the Football League Trophy, UEFA Women's Champions League, FIFA Women's World Cup qualification rounds, the FIFA Women's World Cup and the UEFA Europa League. Massey-Ellis was appointed to the FIFA list of women assistant referees in 2009 and turned professional in 2010.
Alexandra "Saša" Ihringová is a Slovak-born football referee, based in Shropshire, who officiates in the role of assistant referee in the Football League.
Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb is a German football referee. She referees for MTV Engelbostel-Schulenburg of the Lower Saxony Football Association, but since October 2020 only as video assistant referee. She was a FIFA referee, and was ranked as a UEFA women's elite category referee.
Kateryna Volodymyrivna Monzul is a Ukrainian football referee.
Esther Staubli is a Swiss football referee. German-speaking Staubli is 168 cm tall and has been on the FIFA International Referees List since 2006. An agronomist by trade, Staubli also lectures in a university.
Anastasia Vyacheslavovna Pustovoitova is a Russian association football referee. Previously, she was a Russian women's international footballer who played as a defender.
Katriina Elovirta was a Finnish female footballer and was a well known international match referee who served from 1991 to 2003. She served as a referee affiliating with FIFA between 1995 and 2003 She also worked as a development manager for the Finnish Football Association until her death. Elovirta died at age 57 after a long illness.
Hege Lanes Steinlund is a Norwegian former football assistant referee, who officiated women's and men's matches in Norway and Sweden between 1986 and 2013. She is a FIFA-accredited referee, and is believed to have officiated in more international matches than any other Norwegian referee, male or female.
Maryna Striletska is a Ukrainian association football referee. In 2020, she was part of the first all-women officiating team for a men's international match. Since 2022, she officiates in the Swiss Promotion League.
The UEFA Women's Euro 2001 final was an association football match on 7 July 2001 at Donaustadion in Ulm, Germany, to determine the winner of UEFA Women's Euro 2001.
