Maria Piedade Rebello is an Indian former footballer and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

who officiates primarily in the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

, having been appointed to the list of I-League referees before the 2013–14 season, and has been a

FIFA listed The FIFA International Referees List is an annual publication of the global list of FIFA international referees in the football-variants controlled by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) – association football (outdoor ...

referee since 2011. Rebello is the only FIFA-listed women's referee from India. She is also the former captain of the India women's football team.

Early life and footballing career

Born in

Curtorim Curtorim is a town in the Salcette taluka of South Goa district in Goa, India.It comes under Margao metropolitan region. Curtorim, a verdant agrarian village, known as the "granary of Salcete", is said to have got its name from either ' or ' si ...

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

, Rebello started to play football from a young age with the local boys. She then played competitive football for her school side on less than satisfactory fields with makeshift goals which she said made her "rough and tough" and thus made it easier for her to become a footballer. She then went on to captain the India women's team in the

2001 AFC Women's Championship The 2001 AFC Women's Championship was a women's football tournament held in Taipei County, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) between 4 and 16 December 2001. It was the 13th staging of the AFC Women's Asian Cup, consisting of fourteen teams. Teams * * * ...

in which India finished second-to-last in their group. She then retired early from the game.

Refereeing career

After retiring from playing football, Rebello joined the Bombay Referees Association where she trained to become a referee. She then joined the

Goa Football Association Goa Football Association ( GFA; pt, Associação de Futebol de Goa) is the state governing body of football in Goa within the jurisdiction of the Republic of India. It is affiliated with the All India Football Federation, the national governing ...

and refereed matches for men in the local leagues. Eventually she managed to referee matches in the

Goa Professional League The Goa Professional League (abbreviated as GPL, also known as the Selvel Goa Pro League for sponsorship reasons) is the premier state-level football league in Goa, India. It is organised by the Goa Football Association. History The official l ...

, the top football league in

. She also refereed matches in the

SAFF Championship The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as ''South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup'' and ''South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup''), is the main international ...

. She has also managed to referee matches at the professional and semi-professional club level in men's football in India by officiating matches in the

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

and

Santosh Trophy The Santosh Trophy, officially known as Hero Senior Men's National Football Championship due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp, is a state-level football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under ...

I-League

Rebello was then confirmed to be one of the referees on the list of referees for the 2013–14 season on 22 July 2013. She officiated her first I-League match on 8 March 2014 between Pune and

Shillong Lajong Shillong Lajong FC (founded as Lajong SC) is an Indian professional football club based in Shillong, Meghalaya, that competes in the Shillong Premier League. The club was established in 1983 with the prime objective of improving the declining st ...

. She gave four yellow cards out that match as the match ended 2–2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebello, Maria Living people People from South Goa district Indian women's footballers India women's international footballers Indian football referees Footballers from Goa Sportswomen from Goa Women's association footballers not categorized by position Year of birth missing (living people) Footballers at the 1998 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for India Women referees and umpires