​Women are now officiating at the men’s FIFA World Cup, but one barrier remains. No woman has ever served as the center referee, the lead official on the field, for a World Cup knockout match. Although women have officiated group-stage matches in both 2022 and 2026, FIFA has yet to appoint a woman to oversee an elimination match. Research provides some insights into why progress is slow.The numbers show how rare women are in World Cup officiating. For the 2026 tournament, FIFA selected six women as match officials, including two referees, three assistant referees, and one video match official. Still, women represent just 3.5% of the tournament’s 170 officials.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe progress has been gradual. Women first officiated at a men’s World Cup in Qatar in 2022. In that year, only one match featured a woman as the center referee, and it was in the group stage. This year, three matches were officiated by female center referees, Tori Penso and Katia Itzel García, and more matches had women in the assistant referee roles. In addition, in 2022, one match featured an all-female on-field officiating team, and this year, there were two such games.Yet female center referees have been limited to the group stage in both 2022 and 2026. (Referees for the 2026 World Cup final and third-place match will be announced this week.)It’s not shocking that women have had a hard time breaking down barriers at the FIFA World Cup. The players are men, the fans are mostly men (in the U.S., 71% of the fans are men), the coaches are overwhelmingly men, and for decades, the officials were all men. When women referees are given the authority to make calls that impact what’s perceived as a men’s game, it can draw significant backlash.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementResearchers turned to social media to assess the reactions to women calling the shots at the 2022 World Cup. They examined over 22,000 Twitter comments about the female referees.Only 8% of the comments were supportive of the women. The overwhelming majority were classified by the researchers as sexist, exclusionary, reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes, mocking or insulting. Among them were comments such as: “Are we sure these women know anything about football?”, “I thought she was going to pee her pants trying to keep up with the players”, “A woman among 22 men. Not fit for football” and “What are you doing in the field? Fuck off!”The consequences of these comments extend beyond social media. The researchers argue that persistent ridicule and sexist treatment can discourage women from entering and staying in officiating.Previous research has found another issue faced by female referees—every mistake carries extra weight. The research, which included interviews with women officiating men’s soccer in England, found that the female referees reported a double standard. A questionable call by a man is seen as an individual error. The same call by a wo