Marta Huerta de Aza, first main referee to be promoted to the Second Division

The Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has promoted a senior referee, Marta Huerta de Aza (Palencia, 34 years old), to the Second Division for the first time in history. Born in Palencia and assigned to the Tenerife committee, she will be the first referee to officiate matches in the second category of Spanish men’s football. Huerta de Aza has international experience: she refereed a match in the semifinals of the Women’s Champions League, she was in the Euro 2022 Championship in England and participated in the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand that Spain won last summer.

“It is something that one does not even dream of when starting out in this refereeing adventure. I have been fighting for many years and it is a huge satisfaction to have achieved it,” said Huerta de la Aza. “I also feel this promotion as a collective achievement, that is what my colleagues are letting me know. Women’s arbitration in Spain is taking very important steps and this is a success for all,” she added.

For some time now, women have been fighting to make their way among the referees of football – and also other sports such as basketball. In fact, Huerta de Aza is not the first to reach the elite of professional men’s soccer. The assistants Guadalupe Porras and Eliana Fernández have already been in the First Division for several seasons, and next year they will be accompanied by Judit Romero García, who is promoted to LaLiga, while Silvia Fernández will be an assistant referee in the 2024/2025 season in the Second Division.

The promotions of Huerta de Aza and Romero García are another example of the rise of women in football. Not only are they conquering new heights in refereeing, but the number of girls who play has not stopped growing in recent years (107,853 licenses this season) to become the second most practiced sport by them in Spain, only behind of basketball (138,267), although still far from the number of men who kick the ball federatedly (1,140,658), according to data from the Ministry of Education and Sports.

In total, in the first four categories of Spanish men’s football – First, Second, First RFEF and Second RFEF – there are 19 referees – taking into account principals and assistants – among the 486 professionals who are dedicated to refereeing, according to CTA data.

The announcement of Huerta’s promotion comes after the controversy caused by UEFA’s decision not to include a single female referee in the Euro Cup that is being held in Germany these days. At the World Cup in Qatar, held at the end of 2022, there were six referees – three main and three assistants – but the body that governs continental football decided to dispense with the European professionals under the premise that the selection of referees had been based on “ exclusively in its quality.”

Promotions to First

In addition to the promotion of Huerta de Aza, Adrián Cordero Vega, from the Cantabrian committee, and Alejandro Quintero González, from Andalusia, are the referees who rise to the First Division. Cordero Vega returns to the top category, where he already spent four seasons, between 2018 and 2022, while Quintero González had been in the Second Division for three seasons.

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