A leading female official has told a tribunal that a male football referee coach “forcefully pushed” her during a youth level match, and that his behaviour was influenced by her gender. Lisa Benn, 34, alleges she was harassed and unfairly lost her position as an international referee after making a complaint. The Women’s Super League official had claimed that she was manhandled on a pitch in 2023 by Steve Child, a Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) coach and ex-Premier League assistant referee. Giving evidence to a south London employment tribunal on Monday, she alleged Mr. Child also told her “your card has been marked”. A PGMOL investigation found Mr. Child’s behaviour did not meet the threshold for disciplinary action. Ms. Benn alleges that the organisation’s chief refereeing officer, Howard Webb, and his wife Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb, who was then its head of women’s referees, said she would not be punished for coming forward. However, she wrote in her witness statement that, after her complaint, PGMOL did not recommend her as highly as they had previously done. Ms. Benn claimed that this cost her a prestigious place on FIFA’s international referee list.
A PGMOL-organised tournament took place to train staff on VAR, which was not yet used in the women’s game, on March 29, 2023. The schedule was delayed by a serious injury and Ms. Benn said that Mr. Child adopted a leadership role but “was flustered, he was stressed, he was charging around all over the place”. Ms. Benn alleges that the coach grabbed her arm and “forcefully pushed” her on to the pitch. She accepted that Mr. Child said “something along the lines of ‘come on let’s go'” to speed up the start of the game and said she responded by putting her palm up and telling him to “chill”. Jesse Crozier, for PGMOL, asked her: “In saying ‘come on let’s go’ he would have put his arm behind you and ushered you on to the pitch at the same time”. Ms. Benn rejected the claim, saying: “That is definitely not what happened.” The “temperature was high” during the match and Mr. Child instructed a fourth official, Ruby Sykes, to tell Ms. Benn to “kill the game”, the tribunal heard. This prompted Ms. Benn to say “don’t tell me how to referee” and “f*** off”, which was directed at Mr. Child but spoken through a communications system to Ms. Sykes, the panel was told. “I’ve never had somebody shout down the comms to tell me how to referee – I am a trusted referee, I referee at the highest level, this was an under-19s game,” Ms. Benn said. She later added: “He felt superior, he felt like he could come on and tell me how to referee, he manhandled me on to the field of play – he would never have done that to a male referee.” Mr. Crozier asked her: “You appear to take umbrage at the refereeing coach giving you coaching directions while you were refereeing.” She said: “It was a distraction because, as you mentioned, the game was difficult, the game was challenging – there was a lot going on in the game that required my attention.” Ms. Benn said she was also adjusting to “new VAR principles” that were unfamiliar to her. She became emotional as she later told the panel: “He made me feel inferior to me, as a referee and as a human being, and that’s not OK.” Asked if she had seen him act in that way to other referees, she said: “I have to female referees, yes, I haven’t to male referees.” The official said there was a “mass brawl” at the end of the game triggered by one player headbutting another. Mr. Child then grabbed her arm and told her “your card has been marked” and “you’re bloody minded”, she said. “He was so angry his eyes were bulging out of his head,” she told the panel. Ms. Benn accepted that in response she “shouted ‘what is your problem?’ in his direction”. “He didn’t turn around, he just walked off,” she said. Mr. Crozier asked her: “If you had been dragged, grabbed and pushed at a training tournament with dozens and dozens of people, someone would have seen it.” She said there would have been video recordings of the event, but she has not seen any. The barrister said that such an incident “would have been noticed, would it not?” She said: “No, I disagree.”
Speaking at the tribunal on Tuesday, the 34-year-old also alleged she and fellow colleagues did not flag issues because they were worried about losing their contracts. "There is a fear in the women's group to raise grievances, to raise concerns, because of the fear of consequences," said Benn. "The irony of me being sat here is I'm unemployed - in terms of employment by PGMOL - because I raised that grievance." Benn alleged PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb, and his wife Bibi Steinhaus-Webb, then its head of women's referees, said she would not be punished for coming forward. Months later Benn went from fifth to sixth in PGMOL's nominations for FIFA's international referee list. Only the top five officials made the cut for the next season and Benn said she "was sixth because I was dealing with the baggage of this complaint". Her coach John Farries told the tribunal it was "highly unusual" for a referee to "get on to FIFA and be removed so quickly". Benn alleged she was overlooked too by Steinhaus-Webb for Women's Super League refereeing appointments. She needed to officiate five matches to be eligible for the FIFA list and that number would also put her in line for a small bonus, the tribunal heard. However Benn alleged she only received her fifth WSL game because Farries - who said it was "pretty apparent that Lisa wasn't being included" - stepped in. The tribunal panel was told Benn was offered the right to formally appeal the result of the investigation into Child, but declined to take it. Benn told the panel she "naively thought" that she had appealed by telling staff she was unhappy with the process and outcome. The panel also heard she did not respond to several emails from Steinhaus-Webb asking about what support could be put in place. "Every time I heard [Child's] name was a challenging situation for me because it brought me back to that event," added Benn. She called Farries to tell him about the incident on the same day it occurred, the panel was told. Farries said: "She was very distraught, she couldn't talk properly, she was crying and she was sputtering out what had happened to her."
Source: Independent
