The exploit of Ferrieri Caputi, the first female referee in Italy at the time of the first female prime minister of Italy

Arbitrating Sassuolo-Salernitana, Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi has become the third female referee of a top flight match in the top 5 European championships, after the German Bibiana Steinhaus and the French Stéphanie Frappart. She had to experience the Serie B antechamber for just three days (Cittadella-SPAL last year, Modena-Frosinone and Brescia-Perugia this year) before making her Serie A debut. models, in 1991-92 Collina had put six of them there, while in 2003-04 the fellow countryman Gianluca Rocchi (now designator) even 19. Alfredo Trentalange, its current president, needed 15. We report these cold figures obviously not for give a registered letter to Ferrieri Caputi, well aware that slander is a breeze; but to emphasize how remarkable is his exploit, which lends itself to a double interpretation. The first is that Ferrieri Caputi is, and above all will be, an excellent referee. The second is that it undeniably enjoys a wind in media and institutional favor – opening the episode of the Domenica Sportiva which was a guest last night, the conductors immediately evoked the comparison with Giorgia Meloni, the first female premier in Italian history – which, however, in the long run period, it could end up harming them. In our opinion both interpretations are valid.

Bipartisan praise certainly deserved rained on his first race direction. Rocchi had reserved for her the softest match of the round, between two teams for the moment in mid-table, in the stadium with the lowest field factor of the whole Serie A, where the host supporters often and willingly dominate the home supporters. Nevertheless, as long as it had competitive content (at a guess up to 4-0), Sassuolo-Salernitana it was a faster than average game, between two teams used to playing vertically, which notoriously forces the referees to spend a lot more energy. Ferrieri Caputi not only supported the course of events but on the contrary exalted it, avoiding hatefully breaking up the game: the first foul was whistled after thirteen minutes, and several times it was highlighted for a brilliant application of the benefit. At the same time, in other stadiums, the same things did not happen: in the final minutes of Lecce-Cremonese we saw the referee Marinelli prevent Lecce from quickly beating a free-kick in midfield essentially for no reason, if not the human desire to preserve the draw. which was good for everyone and especially for him. So let’s not say that Sassuolo-Salernitana was an easy match: in Serie A there are numerous examples, from Pairetto to Maresca, of referees who would be able to transform even the Christmas mass into a noisy condominium assembly.

But then, at some point, Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi made a questionable decision. The penalty whistled against Sassuolo in the 37th minute of the first half, due to a very venial hip strike by Maggiore on Ceide, is one of those that make you turn up your nose. It is not invented, but it is very fiscal. The commentary live by Luca Marelli, former referee today moviolista on DAZN, was very cautious but not tartufesco: he is a “rigorino”, he said, of those who do not like to see his designator booed. Above all – we add – it was a decision in open contrast to the “English” meter which was effectively maintained throughout the first half: the Salernitana players protested for a long time, before putting their soul in peace after the confirmation of the VAR that had no room to subvert the decision of the field. Nothing dramatic, God forbid: it is a usual Sunday of an Italian referee, it is common practice to vivisect any more or less ambiguous whistle. When Ferrieri Caputi takes over to direct the great classics, he will experience the sensation even more vividly. But, however, however.

But the whole Sunday, indeed the whole weekend starting from the Thursday morning designation, was surrounded by the aura of the historic event. The AIA allowed Ferrieri Caputi to speak live on Domenica Sportiva, something that hadn’t happened by heart since the famous appearance of Concepts Lo Bello after a Juve-Milan match in 1972 to apologize alongside Bruno Pizzul for a mistake committed in the afternoon. Websites and newspapers have thrown themselves headlong into one of those News that our editorial offices, suffocated by the stale air, need every ten minutes: what job do you do, what high school did you go to, and then do you have a boyfriend? Four days of blender on an event of which all the insiders – especially the coaches – have tried to reduce the range: there is no need to pass it off as a striking thing, said for example the Sassuolese Dionisi, it is simply the normality. About a dozen different referees make their debut in Serie A every year: this slightly morbid cherchez la femme, where we talk about women only to fill them with toys and sweets, is the most subtle sign of the male chauvinism that permeates Italian football culture. A one-way analysis in which not only the error disappears but also the simple debate, the nuance of complexity that makes any experience more real and concrete: and so you never grow, on the contrary you run the risk of taking everything seriously. salaam. “The insults hurt me, but the molasses suffocates me”, Enzo Bearzot confessed at the end of the 1982 World Cup, at the time of the balance sheets.

In this anti-critical story of sports where all the coaches are very good, all the games are wonderful and all the losses are the fault of bad luck and injuries, women are the subjects most at risk. Last June, similar tones were used regarding the bad European of the women’s national football team, which finished last in the group behind France, Belgium and Iceland. Not being able to get away with the usual hasty “good all the same” which above all denotes a lack of interest in the study of any sporting event, many commentators limited themselves to spread smoke on the expedition, especially wishing that the female European would stop talking as soon as possible . The smokescreen had the paradoxical effect of glossing over the real reasons for the failure starting with the faults of the coach Milena Bertolini, first responsible for the flop and yet still firmly in charge, as happened to her colleague in the men’s national team – here is the real gender equality!

The excessively honeyed tone hides the prejudice: for being a woman, after all, she got off just fine. In fact, much better than all those bungling males who poison us on Sundays! On the other hand, how much – and how much will it be – for Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi an adult and conscious criticism, of course she is neither boorish nor sexist, nothing that favors the stadium cattle; a criticism that treats all members as adults, that does not treat them as freak phenomena just because they are women, that does not waste time feeding the cloying referee / referee / referee question (“Resolve it for you, I don’t care”, he replied with common sense you). A critique that really equates, abolishing the favored treatments, the velvety cuteness of hypocrisy, the rhetorical tricks to sanctify minorities regardless, isolating them in a glass case for fear that they will then multiply and really question the status quo. And basically it’s a very subtle way of keeping women in their place, lowering them to the level of excited schoolgirls even when they are in effect professionals, even calling them by their first name, Maria Sole were you excited ?, Maria Sole have you insulted ?, Maria Sole you were good! – and yes that Maria Sole has even two surnames.