Kari Seitz is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

referee and the most experienced female referee in the World (out of the male and female referees) She participated in four

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

tournaments in (

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

), as well as four Olympic soccer tournaments (

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, 2012 and 2016) and is the only referee — man or woman — to do so. In October 2013, she announced she would be retiring later in the month after a 28-year career. Her final assignments included the 2013 National Women's Soccer League championship match, the league's first. At the request of FIFA, in 2016 she began managing training for Women's Soccer Referees worldwide. She and her husband relocated to Switzerland in 2016 and she assumed her duties within the FIFA organization.

References

External links

Michigan State University Alumni bio

World Referee Bio
1970 births Living people American soccer referees FIFA Women's World Cup referees Olympic football referees Football referees at the 2012 Summer Olympics Women association football referees Major League Soccer referees American women referees and umpires National Women's Soccer League referees {{US-women-footy-bio-stub