Katherine Margaret Jacewicz (born 6 April 1985) is an Australian

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 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 title ...

. She was first

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 FIFA association football (outdoor football), futsal and beach soccer Beach soccer, also k ...

in 2011.

Refereeing career

Jacewicz began refereeing at the age of 13 when her brother's team needed a referee. After being appointed to referee the 2019 W-League Grand Final, this was her ninth final out of the first eleven seasons of the W-League, which was rebranded in 2021 as

A-League Women A-League Women (currently known as the Ninja A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Fe ...

. She became a FIFA referee in 2011, and was in charge of the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

of the

2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international Women's association football, women's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national t ...

in Jordan. Jacewicz was selected as one of the 27 referees for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football, football championship contested by 24 List of women's national association football teams, women's ...

. She refereed two matches, including the round of 16 clash between Sweden and Canada. In the 2019–20 A-League season, Jacewicz became the first woman to referee a match in the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

when she took charge of the Melbourne City match against

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

. On 9 January 2023, FIFA appointed her to the officiating pool for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

in Australia. She refereed two matches, including the round of 16 clash between Colombia and Jamaica.

References

1985 births Australian soccer referees Women association football referees Living people A-League Women referees Australian people of Polish descent Australian women referees and umpires 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup referees 2023 AFC Asian Cup referees {{Australia-women-footy-bio-stub