Lina Lehtovaara (née Långbacka, born 23 June 1981) is a Finnish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 ...

who has been a FIFA referee since 2009.

Football Association of Finland The Football Association of Finland (, SPL; ) is the governing body of football (soccer), football and futsal in Finland. It was founded in Helsinki on 19 May 1907. The SPL organises the Finland national football team, men's and Finland women's ...

has awarded Lehtovaara as the Referee of the Year in 2015–2016 and 2018–2021. Lehtovaara has refereed in the Finnish women's premier division Kansallinen Liiga and the men's second and third tiers

Ykkönen ''Ykkönen'' (Finnish language, Finnish for 'Number One'; , previously I divisioona) is the third highest level of the Finnish football league system (after the Veikkausliiga and Ykkösliiga), managed by the Football Association of Finland. Until ...

and

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

. In 2022, Lehtovaara refereed the 2022 UEFA Women's Champions League Final between

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

and Olympique Lyon. She was also one of the referees of the

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champio ...

. 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 and New Zealand. Lehtovaara lives in

Pargas Pargas () is a town and municipality of Finland, in the Archipelago Sea, the biggest archipelago in the world by the number of islands, 50,000. The big limestone mine in Pargas is the base of the main industry and except for the central parts, t ...

and works as a teacher. Her brother is the former football goalkeeper Gustav Långbacka.

References

1981 births Living people People from Kokkola Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish football referees Women's association football referees Women referees and umpires 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup referees {{Finland-footy-bio-stub