Claudia Umpierrez set to referee at her second FIFA Women's World Cup in France

Referees both men’s and women’s matches in Uruguay

"The path to becoming a referee was and still is tough"

When Claudia Umpierrez came out onto the pitch shortly before the start of the group match between USA and Australia at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015™ in Winnipeg, she was overcome by emotions. On the one hand there was joy and pride that she and her team would be officiating the first FIFA World Cup game of their careers, but there was also gratitude and the knowledge that the hard work and sacrifices over the years had paid off.

"As the captains chose which end to play from, my career seemed to play out before my eyes like a movie," the Uruguayan match official explains. "I thought about how it had all started on a little pitch in my home town of Pan de Azucar, and then looked at where I was now – in a stadium in front of over 30,000 spectators."

Decades separated those two events, during which the 36-year-old put sport ahead of everything else. She had also had a child in that time, making it even more difficult for her to get back to the top of the pile and earn her spot at that match in Winnipeg.

"The path to becoming a referee was and still is tough," says Umpierrez, who will be taking part in her second FIFA Women's World Cup this summer in France. "I train in the morning, after that I work a seven or eight-hour-day as a lawyer and then also look after my daughter.

"If you asked me if I’d rather be a full-time referee, my answer would obviously be yes. But unfortunately that’s not possible, because I couldn’t put food on the table for my family in the country where I live if that were my sole profession."