FIFA announced today that Carol Anne Chenard, 43, confirmed her retirement. “Refereeing is kind of like the best seat in the house. Over the last 15 years, I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to be on the field with the best of the best", said Chenard.
A former speed-skating World champion, Chenard became a FIFA referee in 2006. “I really started to fall in love with refereeing. As my skating career was coming to an end, I was looking for a way to stay involved in high-level sport, to continue to travel, and soccer refereeing was the way to go. If you had asked me 20 years ago if I wanted to become a FIFA referee… Who would want to do that? That’s crazy, you get yelled at all the time.” Chenard rapidly scaled the ranks and was soon officiating at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011 and the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament London 2012. Then came the chance to oversee matches in her homeland at Canada 2015. Chenard was set to referee at her third Women’s World Cup at France 2019. Then disaster struck in the form of cancer. “I was diagnosed four days before leaving for France,” she said. “A cancer diagnosis is scary at any time, but what made me most upset was that I was going to have to miss going to France. It was one of the first questions I asked my doctor: ‘Can we delay this for five, six weeks and can I go to France?’ They were pretty categorical that that was not the best option for me. Honestly, I was disappointed not to be there with my colleagues – we’d worked for the past four years towards the tournament. But I needed to make sure to put my health first. I was doing chemotherapy on the day of the World Cup kick-off, but I was there as a fan – a referee fan. Those are my colleagues, we put in so much work in the four years leading up to the World Cup, and I wanted to be their biggest fan even though I couldn’t be there. Then I was able to make it to France to watch the Final and cheer them on in person. That was really nice. My oncologist said it was against his advice, but I told him I didn’t ask for his advice! (laughs) I’m still undergoing treatment but I feel really good.” (Source: FIFA)
She had hoped to be fit and healthy for the Tokyo Olympics this past summer, but then Covid-19 put an end to that. “It’s time,” said Chenard. “While it might not be how I saw my on-field career ending, now’s the time given the limitations football is facing in light of the global pandemic. You can only control what you can control and I've been so lucky and blessed to have the opportunities I've had. I would've liked to end it on the field, knowing when it's your last game, but not everyone gets that luxury. I'm not the only one, so I'll take this retirement as it is. With cancer, it's kind of up and down. I've had some setbacks and some steps forward, so I continue to undergo treatment but I feel great. I have nothing to complain about." The 43-year-old doesn't plan on straying far from the game, or officiating, for that matter. She jokes that she's going to the "dark side." Translation? "Instructing and assessing." During the pandemic, she's already started an instructor course and hopes to be involved in some way with Concacaf and FIFA in the future. She's also dabbled a little bit in VAR, which uses replay footage to help correct any errors by the referee that might influence the result of a game. As for what she'll miss the most, perhaps surprisingly, it's the pressure cooker of being a referee. "Being on the field in some of the biggest sporting moments is really something I'll miss. The training, the courses, the group sessions, the talking about games, doing the games. I really enjoyed the difficult games, being on the field. It was a real honour for me." (Source: CBC)
Carol Anne Chenard
FIFA referee: 2006-2020
FIFA Women’s World Cup: 2011, 2015
FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup: 2008, 2010 (final), 2014 (final), 2018
FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017
Women's Olympic Football Tournament: 2012, 2016 (final)
Concacaf Women's Olympic Qualifying: 2008, 2012
Concacaf U-20 Women's Championship: 2008, 2010, 2018
Concacaf U-17 Women's Championship: 2008
Concacaf Referee of the Year 2016