There are growing demands for FIFA to consider using both male and female referees at future Women's World Cups after out-of-control Cameroon players were allowed to foul England players with impunity at the end of Sunday's round-of-16 tie.

Former England captain Faye White echoed the views of her ex-international team-mate Casey Stoney in arguing that there should be a mix of both, also insisting that the debate cuts two ways.

The men's game also had a part to play in allowing female involvement, raising refereeing levels before future tournaments to ensure they play a full and credible part.

Tensions ran high in the match between Cameroon and England at the Women's World Cup

The Cameroon players became infuriated at a number of decisions made by the referee

'I don't see why it has to purely be women referees at the tournament,' White told Sportsmail. 'That applies to the men's game too. It is harder for women to break into the men's game because it is more saturated. But at the World Cup, it should be the best referee for the job. There are some brilliant female referees and some brilliant male referees.'

FIFA, who have had a female-only rule since 1995, have not laid down qualifying criteria for officials at the tournament, leaving it to individual confederations to nominate women as 'elite referees' and put them forward.

That has meant women with experience only of low-pace, low-intensity games in football's developing countries suddenly running highly combative games in front of tens of thousands of people, with a panoply of new VAR rules to exacerbate the situation.

Qin Liang, the Chinese referee when England beat Cameroon 3-0, typically officiates in games with a few hundred people. She was out of her depth when the Africans refused to restart after VAR decisions went against them.

Brutal challenges on England's Nikita Parris, Fran Kirby and Steph Houghton did not elicit a penalty or red card, seemingly to avoid sending Cameroonian protests spiralling out of control.

The referee was accused of not being able to control the players during the World Cup match

Only three of the tournament's referees officiate in top-flight men's leagues: Germany's Bibiana Steinhaus, Stephanie Frappart of France and Claudia Umpierrez of Uruguay.

FIFA's solution to the lack of high-pressure experience was to send the World Cup referees to a boys youth tournament — the Under 17s Alkass International Cup, which Bayern Munich, Roma, PSG, Real Madrid and Rangers competed for in Doha, four months ago. The women also ran games in the Qatar Amateur League Cup, a Doha tournament instituted to give them experience, in March and April.

Some feel it is chauvinistic and an insult to the women's game to allow men to officiate. 'Handling a game like this is the peak of a woman official's career and motivation to reach the elite level, when the men's game excludes her,' said one official, who did not want to be named.

But the view of many players within the women's game is that the standard in France is challenging the credibility of the women's game. Stoney, former assistant to Phil Neville in the England set-up and now Manchester United manager, told the BBC: 'Where are these referees refereeing week in, week out under pressure having to make these decisions? Then we bring them and put them on the world's biggest stage.

After the ugly scenes that unfolded there are now calls to use male referees at the tournament

'It needs to be the best person for the job to give the players the opportunity to play the football and let us be talking about the football, not VAR, not referees' decisions.'

Stoney has said VAR is being used as a 'comfort blanket' by tournament officials lacking the experience to make instinctive decisions. But few of them have any VAR experience, as no women's league in world football uses the technology.

The uncertainty of officials unaccustomed to high-pressure matches has led to some VAR referrals which seem unnecessary — and further doubts about how to interpret footage. Sam Kerr's goal for Australia against Brazil was chalked off because she was interfering with play. Tobin Heath's for the USA against Sweden counted, even though an offside Carli Lloyd affected a defender's decision to play the ball seconds earlier. A lack of experience has led some referees to need multiple replays.

The FA didn't send any referees because there were none deemed up to the standard required

There are no English referees at the tournament because the FA did not deem any to have had enough experience. Sian Massey-Ellis is a specialist referee's assistant and part of a Swiss team of officials at the tournament because she is not yet deemed an international standard referee by UEFA.

The FA's director of women's football, Baroness Campbell, said before the tournament that there was still a long way to go in the recruitment of women officials.

'It's one thing to go on a course and qualification,' she said. 'It's something entirely different to become a world-class referee. We're implementing a new approach to the way we're working with top women referees' participation. We have set an ambitious target of doubling participation.'