PARIS (AP) — After a decade of making history in soccer, French referee Stéphanie Frappart is using her experience to help more women take up the profession.

Frappart was the first woman to referee a men’s Ligue 1 game in France and the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup match.

The 41-year-old Frappart is working with France's national postal service, La Poste, on a committee promoting female referees called “Women and Refereeing" in conjunction with its four partner federations: soccer, rugby, handball and basketball. Their ambition is to increase female match officials in all sports in France, which currently has an estimated 80-20 split for male refs.

“It starts with a change in mentality. Football is played more by men and maybe in handball it's equal. So to begin with you have to increase the numbers of women playing football, which in turn increases the number of referees,” Frappart told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “Last season, we had a 14% increase compared with the season before and now, halfway through the season, we already have 5% more female referees than last season.”

Frappart says the French soccer federation is fully committed to having more female refs and to more women in the sport's governance. But La Poste's committee says the main barriers facing aspiring female referees at the outset are lingering sexism and misogyny.

“We remain confronted by certain stereotypes which are difficult to get beyond ... something still anchored in certain cultures and mentalities," Frappart said. "We have to communicate more on the place women have in football and in society. In media terms, the more women's soccer is shown on television and the more women's sport is shown on television, that will change things.”

Frappart was also the first woman to take charge of a men’s Champions League match, back in 2020. Across more than a decade officiating in men’s games — including the French Cup final and World Cup qualifiers — has Frappart received sexist comments?

“Not from players and coaches, but from people in the stands,” she said. “There have been some chants and comments.”

Frappart became the first woman to take charge of a professional men's game when she refereed a second-tier French league match in 2014.

Others were more worried that day than she was.

“For me it was a normal progression. It didn’t make me feel particularly emotional. But I remember one of the directors from (soccer club) Brest who asked me ‘Are you not too stressed?’" she recalled. "I replied ‘Well, actually it’s not my first game.’ It was a higher level match, but not my first.”

Five years later, Frappart took charge of a top-tier game between Amiens and Strasbourg.

Her ascension continued when she refereed Germany vs. Costa Rica in 2022 at the men's World Cup in Qatar. She said the context of the tournament shielded her from the impact this was having back home.

“I know in France there was a lot of excitement. But (in Qatar) we were more protected in terms of the media, because I was far away and not in my country. We were in a bubble,” she explained. “The moment which had more impact, where you realized the importance of the game, was in Ligue 1. You turned the TV on and you were on it."

There was another first for Frappart when she headed a trio of female officials for a Ligue 1 game in 2023, along with lineswomen Manuela Nicolosi and Élodie Coppola. Later that year, Rebecca Welch became the first female referee in the Premier League.

Frappart is optimistic women's soccer will continue gathering pace.

Last Sunday, U.S. defender Naomi Girma became the first women's million-dollar transfer when she moved from San Diego Wave to Chelsea.

It's far from the men's record 222 million euros ($231 million) Paris Saint-Germain paid for Neymar; and Girma's salary won't be anything near what Erling Haaland receives from Manchester City after signing a 10-year deal.

Frappart sees it differently.

“You shouldn't compare what happens in women's soccer and in men's soccer, they are two separate entities with a different economy. But what I would say is that it's good that transfers like these are starting to happen," Frappart said. “It's a positive evolution which shows there are human and financial measures for the development of women's soccer. Some years ago there were no contracts and the players were still amateurs. Now there is genuine progression, we must push for this to continue.”

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