The French referee has been assigned to the final act of the competition, after having officiated twice in group stage and a quarterfinal in KO stage.
Another honor added to her international career, after the FIFA Women's WC final in 2019.
27 July 2025
18:00 CET - St. Jakob-Park, Basel
ENGLAND - SPAIN
Referee: Stéphanie Frappart FRA Assistant Referee 1: Camille Soriano FRA
Assistant Referee 2: Francesca Di Monte ITA
Fourth Official:Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi ITA
Reserve Assistant Referee: Susanne Küng SUI
Video Assistant Referee: Willy Delajod FRA
Video Assistant Referee: Willy Delajod FRA
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 1: Christian Dingert GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee 2: Dennis Johan Higler NED
UEFA Referee Observer: Dagmar Damková CZE
UEFA Referee Observer: Dagmar Damková CZE
UEFA Delegate: Aleksandra Pejkovska MKD
Unfair decision, Frappart got everything Super Cup Final, WC final, EC final now, got matches in EL,CL...nonsense
ReplyDeleteShe's the best. Far ahead of the others. Simple as that.
DeleteWhile there is some truth to what Eric X says.
DeleteIn the big picture, it shows how truly limited the UEFA Referee Committee is in regard to their current pool of supposed "Elite" women's referees.
Too many wannabes who have glaring deficiencies in their skill set keeping them from being truly "Elite".
Or maybe, just maybe, it shows an utter failure of whoever is in charge of the women's refereeing department within UEFA. For failing to properly develop new talent to replace the highly talented crop of referees who have recently retired.
I really liked a point made by a user a few days ago: the question we might ask ourselves is whether, despite everything, UEFA has ultimately failed to produce other strong figures at the top of women's refereeing, and has once again saved itself under the shield of the French official? Who, in any case, absolutely deserved this final thank also to the penalty call in the Italy match, an outstanding technical decision, in my opinion.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the criticism we can send to Dagmar Damková and the current state of women’s refereeing in Europe is that there was a bit too much predetermined thinking during this competition, with appointments often based on prestige rather than strictly on performance. I believe some referees were stopped even though they hadn’t done that badly, simply because they were considered of a certain level on paper, while others advanced. This wasn’t strictly a tournament based on how each official performed, but as we have seen, that’s very hard to happen exclusively at this level in international refereeing.
One should be happy for Ferrieri Caputi, who woud have been the second candidate at this point, while they really tried everything with Olofsson but couldn't make it (going back to the earlier point). I still believe the general intent was to avoid appointing the Frenchwoman again for a big Women's international final, but she absolutely deserved it.
Referee Observer : Dagmar Damkova CZE
ReplyDeleteFrom an English perspective more than happy. She did the all English Super Cup, has refereed the men's international team and seems to get on with the way we like to play the game. Far and away the top Women's referee (whether she is a great referee in the men's game is for others to decide)
ReplyDeleteSo, we should look forward to England hacking their way through the match in an attempt to neutralize the more skilled and possession-based Spaniards?
DeleteFor the good of the game, I truly hope that Frappart shows more of a spine (for the entire 90 minutes) than Huerta de Aza and Martincic showed in their respective matches.
What matches were you watching ? The Italians committed far more fouls than the English. They stopped playing after half time, parking the bus and did everything they could to stall for time , time wasting you name it? I have no qualms with using these but to claim that England were hacking their opponents down is laughable when they were the ones chasing the game while their opponents attempted to bring them down
DeleteI may have red/white tinted glasses on but in the main the English games are easier to referee as there is little histrionics
ReplyDeleteI felt there should have been a couple of further YCs in the SF for English players but to say they "hacked" their way to the final is disingenuous at best, factually incorrect at worst.
Germany gave away quite a few "clever" fouls in SF but I don't see anyone criticising their tactics.
Player for player Spain are the better side; therefore England will have to out think and out compete
Nah uh. And Germany did it too. Great comeback pal.
DeleteI stand by what I said.
England have been one of the if not the most petulant and whiny teams at the tournament.
They act shocked and whine whenever a referee dares to whistle a foul against them.
The referees have allowed Bronze to continuously foul in order to make up for what she lacks in skill. She's the male version of a Kyle Walker or Pepe or Rudiger.
Dagmar Damkova doesn't seem to have much confidence in her observers: she shared the quarter-final matches at least with Gyöngy Gaal but after that made everything completely her own - in the KO stage she observed 5 of the 7 matches herself. In addition with the only four observers in the group stage (where she "robbed" one of them the opening match which she also observed herself), this appointment strategy seems extremely authoritarian to me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she needs the extra money....
DeleteOr maybe she's a control freak who just has to have her hands in anything and everything. This makes it even more clear as to who deserves the blame for the overall poor state of women's refereeing in UEFA.
DeleteRosetti also acted as the observer at EURO 2024 for two out of the last three matches (Zwayer and Letexier), as well as the opening match (Turpin).
DeleteFor other major matches, a different committee member was appointed—for instance, during Vincic’s semi-final.
The main difference is that, in the men’s tournament, there are more committee members.
I don’t see anything unusual. Yes, Damková also observed two quarter-finals, but those involved the main final candidates. That may not be so strange after all.
I find the (only) four female observers in the group stage extraordinarily few, and the specific names too; those currently being used in the European Cup qualifiers are much more familiar to me. Both criteria are, to me, significantly different from a men's European Championship. Why does Dagmar Damkova rely on so few female observers, and why specifically these?
DeleteI come to this site primarily to learn about the role that officiating plays in modern day football, e.g. technical discussion about what's a foul and what isn't and why, for example. But the political discussions are also interesting and even essential, in light of the move towards football as "primarily entertainment."
ReplyDeleteFrom a management point of view, could it be possible that Damkova receives such varying views of referee's performances from other observers that she now must take matters into her own hands to make proper decisions and recommendations going forward? The performance of Martincic could easily be argued as having skewed the outcome of the match from the beginning because of withholding (justified / necessary?) YCs until very late in the match. And/or the possibility that there may be forces at work to push further towards this type of game management among women's referees.
I agree with whomever said it earlier in this UEFA playoff series: Women's football is good enough on its own without such changes. Record-breaking crowds here says that directly.
Thank you for this valuable site. Especially to Chefren.
Thank you for your kind comment and acknowledgement. It was I who posted those words.
Delete"Women's football is good enough on its own without such changes"
My view on this football wide. There is absolutely no need for referees to be used as pawns in order to artificially manufacture flow or excitement in any match by completely disregarding/trampling the LoTG.
World Football is a SPORT. It's not WWE which is "Sports Entertainment".
Thanks for this post, OldSwissLady.
DeleteYou have a more than valid argument here, I must say.
It's indeed possible that Damkova wanted to take the affair by herself in the very last stages of the competition (nevertheless, too late in case, because all appointments already made), but a realistic scenario is that she wanted to respect the reports of some observers and for this reason she appointed again the involved referees for other games. I think that you make a selection of trusted observers for a final tournament, you must give some credit to them, otherwise you can do everything by yourself (ot it can be just all about committee members, or even more making things clear before "you observe but we decide..."). This would explain some weird choices, but staying at Damkova, she watched Alina Pesu, then she didn't appear for a long time. Given the observation, one could have expected at least a KO game for her (otherwise why that focus?), but it didn't happen. And... the Romanian was not that bad if compared to others, but she didn't get KO stage. OK, there was the soft penalty, but we had definitely worse performances.. so in that case the assessment was rather harsh. Two Romanians both ended at GS. In other words, maybe with a different structure and Damkova watching everything, we could have been totally different management and assignments... but of course it's just speculation and we can't know more.
I am not sure whether the importance of the observation reports is being overrated: especially at a European Championship, the chairwoman of the referees' committee will analyze all key scenes herself and form her own judgment. I cannot imagine that Dagmar Damkova just records all the scores in Excel, sorts them in descending order, and then decides, "Oh dear, 0.1 points too few - I will not use you again!"
DeleteI found it interesting that there was an extremely limited circle of only four observers (cronies?) in the group stage (only the opening match was monitored by Dagmar Damkova herself; picking the cherries?), considering that Spain's national team played in Group B, a Spanish observer was present on all match days in both Group A and Group C, and there was also a Spanish referee. This severely restricted the options if one wanted to avoid double observations.
OT:
ReplyDeleteIvana Projkovska with 3 game so far
Peru-Ecuador
Venezuela-Bolivia
Chile-Uruguay
I think she only have 1 match left (SF). But with low number of attendance and low spotlight at Copa America Femenina, and on the other hand we saw many poor performance from big names in Women Euro. Did you think Damkova made mistake and of course Projkovska unfortunately become "sacrificial lamb"?
https://streambug.org/cv/66bdb3
DeleteBased on this clip, I don't think Projkovska was any great loss for the Women's Euro.
I've watched the Copa America Femina.
DeleteOut of the three matches that the Macedonian had.
Only her first match was somewhat competitive. But Peru and Ecuador (other than their rivalry) aren't exactly top-level teams. To be honest, her performance wasn't exactly convincing. She struggled to adjust to the South American style of play.
Her second match was an outright scrimmage. Where Venezuela romped to an unopposed 7-1 victory over an overwhelmed and amateurish Bolivia. What Mikael posted above is just one of the incidents that left a lot to be desired from the Macedonian. And this was in a one-sided lopsided match where she shouldn't have has any problems.
Her third match, on paper was supposed to be a competitive tilt between two teams attempting to snag the second spot in the group. But Chile simply didn't show up and Uruguay cruised to a fairly uneventful 3-0 win.
After three games, I think she's done. I honestly don't see her working a semi-final. But she may get the 5th place match out of courtesy.
This year, unlike past years. The referee exchange was quite unequal. While Alves Batista is a top tier referee, Projkovska is "elite" in name only. She's been unconvincing at this tournament and unconvincing in the UEFA matches that I've seen her work.
No referee in this tournament would have had problems with that match... only a few challenges for both ARs.
ReplyDeleteAgree. But I also think that the players “feel” Frappart presence. 😉
DeleteLet’s hope for a bit more challenging second half…
DeleteTwo good YC to calm down english players after 1-1. Very firm and natural authority by French referee. Well done.
Delete71 now missed YC for a reckless elbow. unlucky that it happens rigth before the benches... maybe Ferrieri Caputi could have helped?
ReplyDeleteStarting to get the feeling the foul detection against ENG is slipping. Spanish scream and often get the FK
ReplyDeleteYeah too many soft free kicks mainly in favor of Spain cause they scream a lot
DeleteAgree completely. It's been an okay performance, but nothing better from Frappart
DeleteThere has not been a single goal kick taken correctly by English goalie. The ball was always outside the goal area and both ARs failed to noticed it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, strong performance by Frappart, again.
Agree : strong performance by Frappart. No refereeing issues in the Final. So important is done.
DeleteIf there is something to remrmber about this tournament:
ReplyDelete1: The 8-second rule was never enforced. 2: Terrible penalty shoot-outs by the teams.
Frappert was her usual inconsistent self . Failing to YC several late challenges by Spain ,yet YC England players for the same kind of tackles
ReplyDelete1st England shoot-out penalty retaken because of a double touch? Unless I’m missing something in Laws 10 and 14 that was botched
ReplyDeleteah, new guidance, never mind!
DeleteNow, after the end of the tournament, my assessments on the referees.
ReplyDeleteEdina Alves Batista
The Brazilian referee delivered a good EURO tournament.
The doubt remains about the decision made after the VAR intervention in her first match. In my opinion, it was a mistake; she should have awarded the penalty, but it seems it was not given too much importance. The rest was all regular. Perhaps above the standard giving her a semifinal more epected rather a quarterfinal, but there is not that much to object. Maybe rewarded also for a long international career (close to an end?).
Ivana Martinčić
For me, she was disappointing.
Of course, not to the level of very poor performances, but more was by far expected. She was appointed for further matches, surely based on the great experience she had, experience that, however, we didn’t really see reflected at FIFA level when she was called.
In the end, one could talk about small things in her highly discussed match between the Netherlands and Spain, but she was never truly flawless, and in my opinion, she managed the knockout stage match quite poorly. Got more than what she showed. But not a full disappointment, trying to be as objective as possible.
Frida Klarlund
Didn't watch her games in particular but the feeling is that she was planned in all cases for nothing more than group stage. To be analyzed the inside / outside decision in ENG - WAL, a nice game for her, nevertheless. Could she have done more? Let's say we can still reserve an opinion.
Stéphanie Frappart
I don't think she started as the favorite, as it seemed like the right moment to give someone else a chance to handle big matches.
But in the end, the French referee emerged once again.
I think it’s interesting to point out how, during a more “intermediate” phase of her career, let’s say, up to now, she hadn’t really stood out compared to her early days, when she was already being used in significant matches. However, during this tournament, her appointment for the final is fully justified, and ultimately well deserved, especially considering the penalty she awarded in Italy’s match. I keep repeating this, but in my opinion that decision should be shown in referee training courses for how excellently it was taken. That said, she adds another great achievement to her career, and having now officiated both Women’s World Cup and Euro finals, she surely remains a unique case in the history of women’s refereeing worldwide. Congratulations.
Katalin Kulcsár
A referee who, as our friend Mikael rightly noted, belongs to the "old school", with a style and approach that clearly no longer align with modern refereeing standards, and say that in a positive way, because I personally like it. Unfortunately, in today’s football, that style doesn’t seem to be accepted anymore. The length of her international career, with matches officiated as far back as 14 years ago, clearly explains her current status. So, the assessment made by our very competent blog's admin might actually be correct, they likely wanted to give her a bit of visibility, a place on the stage, but without truly considering her for something more important. Even though I personally believed in her chances because with that level of experience and what seemed like an initial focus on her, a different outcome could have been imagined. Still, for me, that style of refereeing is one that should always be followed (even more if you look at Martincic...). But clearly, today’s refereeing doesn't see it that way.
Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi
DeleteAs I have repeated several times, I didn’t watch her first match, but the second one was excellent. In fact, that match alone with three major decisions taken without any VAR intervention is, by itself, enough to justify the possibility of officiating a final. I don’t want to exaggerate, of course, but that’s how I see it. She was coming off a disastrous Serie A season, but in my opinion she also faced some issues, as I mentioned, particularly in terms of often being absent due to international appointments. I hope this great experience, culminating in her role as fourth official in the final, can serve as a boost of confidence for the upcoming season, where she might find a small space for herself. If I have to say something to Rocchi: try to see how she reacts.
Silvia Gasperotti
A great start on a big stage for the other Italian referee, whom we had even imagined could be appointed for a KO-stage match. But clearly, the refereeing hierarchy emerged here, with her colleague Ferrieri Caputi being ranked ahead. I believe she can be quite satisfied with her performances. The red card in her match was definitely something useful and important to stand out in a positive way, even if it was a basic decision to make, we should never take anything for granted. Surely, given that she wasn’t appointed after the group stage, this was the best she could do. It was likely planned this way from the start, and now that we are after the full final whistle of EURO, I don’t think we can really criticize that decision too much (she needs more experience to get more).
Catarina Campos
Certainly very unlucky, as she also got injured and wasn’t able to officiate her second match. At this point, I agree that the Spanish reserve referee was appointed for that reason, to replace her.
But we have to say that unfortunately, up until she refereed her first and only match, Catarina Campos turned out to be the weakest referee of the tournament. Unlucky, yes I don’t know her at all, so I can’t say how good she actually is, and I haven’t seen her other matches, but in this competition, she completely missed everything and ended up being the official with the poorest performance.
As for the second match she didn’t officiate, we obviously can’t know how it would have gone.
Iuliana Demetrescu
Her first match was regular, while in the second there were some elements that may have led the committee to exclude her from the knockout stage, where, in my opinion, she could have had a spot.
At least one of the two Romanian referees could have been included.
She didn’t officiate the Spain - Italy match excellently. My assessment is that she didn’t perform that badly either, but certainly some key decisions, as we discussed days ago when analyzing the match, should have been made. Overall, I’d say it was a decent EURO for her, though slightly below standard. I could have predicted her in a quarter-final.
Alina Pesu
In my opinion, there were higher expectations for her as well, just like for her colleague from same country, but in the end she wasn’t able to officiate after the group stage. She was also observed by committee member Damkova, who then didn’t watch any other matche for a certain time, and this must have meant something.
The penalty she awarded in one instance was too soft, and that may have influenced the overall perception of her performance.
That said, we also saw some positive moments, like the handball she gave, so, all in all, I think they were genuinely unsure whether to give her another match or not. In the end, her performance level was quite similar to Demetrescu's, essentially, both had some shortcomings in their games where they could have done better. But considering what they managed to get, I’d say it’s fair enough.
Marta Huerta De Aza
DeleteHonestly, in my opinion, if we consider her first match, she should be seen as the worst referee of the tournament, perhaps just after Catarina Campos. However, she was given another opportunity, and here we return to the idea of certain predetermined choices in this competition, where the intention seemed to be not to penalize an experienced official too much for one bad performance. She did better in her second match, but clearly that was a much easier game to manage. So fundamentally, the evaluation still relates to what we saw in the first match, where once again, the Spanish referee failed to truly confirm herself at the international level, just as had happened in the past. One could say that the second match slightly improved the overall impression, but in general, it’s certainly another competition that won't be remembered as a highlight. It’s sad to say it, because she has now become a very experienced figure, but we’ll see what happens in future. It seems like she had plenty of chances so far, but never really showed those big skills.
Tess Olofsson
Despite having officiated two group stage matches and one KO match, all of them quite prestigious, she should be considered one of the biggest disappointments of this tournament in terms of overall performance. Her appointments clearly suggest that she was originally planned for the final, I’d bet on it. Otherwise, they would have dropped her already after the second group stage match.
They tried in every possible way to support her path, but unfortunately, a series of poor decisions, including a lack of accuracy with cards and overall game management didn’t help her.
The OFRs were the icing on the cake, but in a negative sense.
I'm genuinely sorry, because right now she’s regarded as the big name in European women’s refereeing, probably the number one after Rebecca Welch retired, if we want to consider Frappart times as rather now "over". But she definitely didn’t manage to confirm herself this time. We'll see what the future holds for her, but as of now, she seems stuck. To add, personally, I also think that this “Nordic component” holds some of these referees back from giving more! I see similarities with Nyberg in that sense: the attempt to manage matches in a calm, controlled way, as if nothing is ever supposed to happen. Unfortunately, today’s international stage cannot be handled like that in ALL GAMES, at least in my view. I watch with Italian eyes, full of passion,and the same goes for Spanish, Portuguese, and others, and I can really see a difference in refereeing styles, which I find hard to accept.
Désirée Grundbacher
I didn’t see all of her performances, but according to what I saw, not that bad. Of course, the fact that she was the home referee probably played a role and gave her a bit more, but overall she deserved the matches she officiated. Hard to appear out of group stage, indeed.
I would say it was a standard tournament for her.
Olatz Rivera Olmedo
Called as reserve, then appointed for a game very likely due to the Portuguese referee's injury, as said above, thank to Mikael and his great report, I think she can be a good name for the future. We'll see.