The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Sport Saturday
Oatley ‘took a hit’ to pave way for Welch
When Rebecca Welch becomes the first woman to referee a Premier League match today as she takes charge of Fulham against Burnley, it will not be the first time Craven
Cottage has played host to a moment of history for women working in football.
On April 21, 2007, in another topflight match with Blackburn Rovers the opposition, broadcaster Jacqui Oatley made her Match of the Day commentary debut, and a lot of people were up in arms.
Oatley says she is glad society has “moved on” so Welch should not be subjected to the media furore she received 16 years ago, when headlines such as “From Motty to Totty” accompanied articles criticising her appointment for the game.
“I was commentating for 5 Live and it wasn’t out of the ordinary for a 5 Live commentator to be asked to do Match of the Day, and therefore I didn’t think as much of it [initially]. Then I thought, ‘ I hope there’s not going to be any sort of public outcry here’ because I could frankly live without that,” Oatley recalls. “I was hoping it’d stay nice and quiet. But that was wishful thinking.
“Unfortunately, it became public in a national newspaper. Then I was waking up and hearing my name at the top of the hour on the radio and thinking, ‘Oh, God’. It became a big story with arguments and a sexism debate.
“A former top-flight manager and a heavyhitting newspaper journalist had said they were against it. I was in the eye of a storm and all I wanted to do was just focus on my prep. I couldn’t really sleep and I didn’t really eat for a few days. It felt like my brain was mushy peas just trying to get through that day and hopefully not get lambasted too much.
“I certainly felt a sense of responsibility that, if people didn’t like me, they would dislike all female commentators in the future and would rule unilaterally that women can’t commentate on football/ sport, so I said to myself, ‘Just do the best job you can’.”
Welch has been a trailblazer for female officials for years, becoming the first woman to referee an English Football League match when she took charge of Harrogate Town v Port Vale in April 2021. Then she became the first to be in the middle for a men’s FA Cup third-round tie, Birmingham City against Plymouth Argyle in 2022. She has since worked at the Women’s World Cup and regularly takes charge of games in the Championship, as well as Women’s Super League fixtures.
“What she’s achieving is fantastic and it’s based on merit,” Oatley says. “It’s not a big bolt from the blue because she’s worked her way up the system. She certainly doesn’t need advice from me, because she is an excellent referee and official, but control the things you can control, and just smile at the rest of it.
“And there’s so much refereeing controversy at the moment that, hey, if she makes a mistake, it’s not because she’s a woman, is it? We’ve moved on a lot in terms of attitudes in society. I don’t think she’ll be judged on whether she can referee or not because she’s already proved that, every single week.
“We need little girls watching on
Match of the Day to look at Welch and think, ‘Maybe I could do that – how do I start that journey?’ ”
Oatley is also pleased about the increased number of women commentating on football. “Some good has come out of me taking that hit and whilst it was deeply unpleasant at the time, I’m really happy if it meant other women can just get on with it,” she says.
“I would hope we’re at the point where maybe listeners don’t even notice the commentator is a woman, and if they’re not your favourite, that’s fine, but you don’t denigrate an entire species on the basis of you not liking one female’s particular commentary. Women in all walks of life just want to be judged on our merits.”