Cheryl Foster MBE Leaves Refereeing to Take Up New Role Within FA.

Cheryl Foster has announced that she will no longer be titling as a referee, as she takes up a new position within the FA.

Foster ended her playing career in 2013 and shortly after took on refereeing. Notably, she went on to referee both the Women’s Euros 2022 and FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 finals. She sat down with FAW Cymru and announced her retirement from refereeing, stating:

“I think when you know, you know. Obviously it’s something that I’ve thought about for a while and I’ve gone through a number of emotions in deciding what to do next.”

Last year Foster was awarded a ‘Member of Order of the British Empire’ (MBE) for her services to Welsh football. During her playing career, she scored nine goals in 63 senior appearances for the Cymru national team. She also spent nearly a decade at Liverpool, where she played in the first two seasons of the Barclay's WSL.

Foster has taken up at new role with the FA becoming ‘Senior Manager of Refereeing Pathway, Progression and Development’. She commented on this saying, “I’ve not retired, that’s a big word. The English FA have been really supportive in that they know how much Wales and the progression of referees in Wales means to me.”

In her new role she would like to support the JD Cymru Premier VAR project and continue to promote careers in refereeing. Foster reflected on her time refereeing saying, “When I look back I’m really, really proud of what I’ve achieved in a merely a short space of time.”