Do you know the offside rule?

The thought of a female football referee used to be enough to send the game’s traditionalists into a cold sweat.

But the women’s game is becoming ever increasingly popular across the world and more and more women are now turning to officiating as well as playing the beautiful game.

The Football Association currently has 1,041 qualified women referees on its books and one of their newest members is 48-year-old mother-of-four Carol Reader from Holyport.

Sports-mad Carol decided to undertake the training last November in a bid to solve a referee problem for her nine-year-old son Harry’s team.

In April she qualified and now can be found spending her weekends proudly keeping junior footballers in check.

“For the last few years I’ve spent a lot of time on the touchline watching my boys play football,” Carol said. “And so when the opportunity came up to do a bit of refereeing, I thought why not.

“It’s very testing, especially as I’ve been used to just watching for all those years.

“But the training I’ve had has been very good and I’ve been able to cope.

“There is lots of stuff to learn as I didn’t know all the rules. The main thing is learning the rules and interpreting them in the right way - it comes down to judgement.”

Carol was trained by the Berks & Bucks FA at Reading Football Club’s Madjeski Stadium and, despite her evident enthusiasm for the game, Carol does admit that she’s yet to come across another women in charge of a game.

“When I was training there were no women in my group and I don’t think I ever remember seeing a woman ref at any of my boys’ games or tournament,” she added.

“But being a woman didn’t affect any of my training and it would be great to get more people like me doing the courses.”

Carol’s choice of weekend activity has certainly raised a few eyebrows among those she knows and meets.

“The first thing people say to me when I tell them I’m a referee is, ‘Do you know the offside rule?’” she said. “But people have been very supportive. Those that know me are on my side and most other people are very interested in what I’m doing.

“And the players think it’s quite fun that they know the referee and they seem to be really impressed that I’ve got all the kit and have done all the training.

“I do feel proud when I pull on the kit and I’m glad that I was able to do my bit.

“It would be great to see more women in the game and the training was very supportive and worthwhile.

“I’d love to see more referees signing up and I hope people will realise that if I can do it then they can to.

“Football is a big thing and referees are as big a part of that as the players and the coaches.”

So how has Carol, who also has two twin daughters as well as another football playing son, 14-year-old Al, managed to juggle a large family, a international job and learning to be a referee.

“It certainly keeps me busy and I sleep well at night,” she laughed.