Rebecca Welch to referee at Paris Olympic Games
Rebecca Welch was named as one of just three English officials selected for the Olympic football tournament at the Paris 2024 Games in the summer.
Emily Carney and David Coote were the other two selected. Welch will be one of the 21 referees to take part of the football tournament, among a wider group of 89 match officials from 45 different countries, all selected by Fifa.
Goal-line technology and VAR will be in place along with semi-automated offside technology, with the latter regularly used in the Champions League and Serie A, although it is not currently in place for Premier League matches.
At the Games, the men’s tournament will take place between July 24 and August 9, while the women’s edition starts on July 25 and will run until August 10, both the gold medal matches are scheduled to take place at the Parc des Princes.
Unlike other events which will take place in and around the capital city, the football matches will be spread across France. Matches have been scheduled to take place in Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nice, Marseille, Bordeaux and Nantes in addition to Paris.
Welch made history in December when she became the first woman to take charge of a Premier League fixture, Burnley’s 2-0 win against Fulham at Craven Cottage. She has been refereeing since 2010, and was also the first woman to take charge of a match in the Championship at the start of 2023.
She will be the only English referee at the tournament, but it has not yet been announced whether she will be in charge in the men’s or women’s competition or which matches.
Last year Welch took charge of three matches at the Women’s World Cup, having been chosen as part of Uefa’s 28-member elite refereeing cohort.