Sonia Denoncourt (born June 25, 1964) is a retired

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. She worked for

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

as head of women's referee development, Director of Refereeing at Concacaf and currently work as the North America Academy Director at You Are The Ref International.

Early life

Denoncourt was born in

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada and attended Mitchell & Montcalm High School. She graduated from the

Université de Sherbrooke The University of Sherbrooke ( French: Université de Sherbrooke) (UdS) is a large public French-language university in Quebec, Canada with campuses located in Sherbrooke and Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal approximately west of Sherbrooke. It ...

with a degree in

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

and later attained a master's degree in Sports Administration from the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

Career

Denoncourt began refereeing in 1978 at the age of just 14 and later decided to give up playing the game to further her career as a referee at the age of 22. Denoncourt became the first female

accredited referee in 1994. She went on to referee the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

1996 Summer Olympics

Women's football was made its debut at the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

and Denoncourt was selected as one of four female referees that would officiate in the tournament and she refereed the first ever women's football match in the Olympics when she took charge of a match between

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. She also officiated a semi-final match between

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and was the Fourth official in the final.

1997 Campeonato Paulista

In February 1997, Denoncourt became the first female to referee a professional men's match in Brazil, when she officiated the opening

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional association football, football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Run b ...

fixture between

São José Esporte Clube São José Esporte Clube, more commonly referred to as São José, is a List of football clubs in Brazil, Brazilian football club based in São José dos Campos, São Paulo (state), São Paulo. The team compete in Campeonato Paulista Série A3 ...

and defending champions

Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

. Her performance was criticized by the away team's players, coach and supporters after she sent off

Cafu Marcos Evangelista de Morais (born 7 June 1970), known as Cafu (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Known for his pace and energetic attacking runs along the right flank, he is regarded as one of the gr ...

and disallowed a goal by

Djalminha Djalma Feitosa Dias (born 9 December 1970), known as Djalminha , is a Brazilian football pundit and retired professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Blessed with superb skill and technical ability but possessing a troubl ...

2000 Summer Olympics

Denoncourt was selected as one of the nine match officials that would participate in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Olympic football tournament Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA Wo ...

s. She refereed two group matches,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

vs.

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and Norway vs.

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and was picked to referee in the women's football final at the 2000 Olympics between Norway and United States.

After retirement

She announced her retirement as a referee on 6 July 2004, stating: "It is a difficult decision as I am still in love with refereeing, but I guess it is time for me to move on with my life." In October 2005, Denoncourt was appointed by

as its head of women's referee development after impressing as a refereeing instructor at the women's world under-19 championships in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. In 2005, she was inducted into the

Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2019, the Canada Soccer Ha ...

.Also inducted in Hall of Fame: • 2015 First women to be inducted to the CSA Life Membership Award • 2005 Inducted in the Canadian soccer Hall of Fame • 2004 Inducted in the Quebec soccer Hall of Fame • 2015 Inducted in the Hall of Fame for Sherbrooke City • Named Ambassador of the University of Sherbrooke for extended international career and accomplishments • Inducted in the Soccer Club “Les verts de Sherbrooke” • CAAWS award (Canadian Association for the Advancement Women in Sports and Physical Activity) as an international leader in women in sports

Awards

* Quebec Soccer Federation's Referee of the Year (5): 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 * 1995 CSA National Ray Morgan Award for excellence in lifetime refereeing achievement

References

External links

* / Canada Soccer Hall of Fame
Face to face with Sonia Denoncourt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denoncourt, Sonia 1964 births Living people Canada Soccer Hall of Fame inductees Canadian soccer referees FIFA Women's World Cup referees Women association football referees Olympic football referees Sportspeople from Sherbrooke Soccer people from Quebec University of Ottawa alumni Université de Sherbrooke alumni