This interview took place in July 2026. Since then, Delfina has officiated her final professional match, closing out a 17-year career as a match official. She remains involved with Football Australia and Capital Football in an off-pitch capacity.
Delfina Shakespear grew up in an Australian Macedonian household where football was an important pastime. Still, she played netball before switching to football in her mid-teens, finally convincing her mother to let her play the sport she'd always loved watching. To manage the demands of school, a casual job and playing football, she took her parents' advice and enrolled in a refereeing course at 17. From there, she forged her own path in professional refereeing, all while completing a university degree in science. Despite facing gender-based abuse and resistance in a small, traditionally male-dominated federation, she persevered, eventually landing a role as a match official in the A-League Women, Australia's top professional league.
Throughout her 13-year national-level refereeing career, Delfina also maintained a prominent role as an Australian public servant. She became the first woman to serve as vice president of the Professional Football Referees Association, and two years ago, she transitioned into a role at Sport Integrity Australia, where she works on policy frameworks and cultural environments to support young women across Australian sport. That role has allowed her to translate her on-field experience as an official into broader, systemic change.
Delfina also sits on an advisory working group for the Australian Sports Commission, which is developing an action plan for officiating across all sports extending toward 2032. She retired from national-level competition in April, but she still referees in the men's National Premier League in Canberra, where she became only the third woman to referee a men's competition in the region. In 2019, she was named both Men's and Women's National Premier League Referee of the Year.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Delfina about her journey in sport and what she's doing to pave the way for the next generation in Australia.
Bonito: How did you first get involved in football, and in what capacity? How did your passion for football eventually lead you to enter the world of refereeing?
Delfina: I'm very lucky to live in a country where sport is our lifeblood; it's a very big part of our culture in terms of what we do. I'm also a very proud Australian Macedonian. My dad migrated from Macedonia as a child or Yugoslavia as it was at that point. As with most European families, football was a big part of my childhood. It's a passion that I shared with my dad. We'd get up at all hours and watch games. But I didn't start my sporting career in football. I played netball, which is big in Australia. My mum was a bit worried about me playing football because it was too boyish; she was worried I'd get pushed around. I managed to wear her down by my mid- teens. I also coached my little sister's team. I wasn't much of a player, but I was quick and fit.
While I was playing football, I was also at school and working my first casual job. During my last year of high school, my parents told me I had too much going on and needed to give something up. They suggested that I start officiating as a way to get paid and still stay engaged in the game. I remember going to the referee's course with my dad. I was the only girl; it was so daunting. But I sat the test, and I topped it. Two weeks later I officiated my first match for two local teams. I didn't know this ahead of time, but there was rivalry, and two of the players got into a fight. In my first game I had to hand out two red cards. Someone from the federation was watching the game because it was a novelty at the time for a young woman to officiate. He told me I had potential and that I could make a real go out of it.
At that time, I started studying science at the university, and I was also progressing up the match official pathway. I went from officiating local football into federation football. My mum would drive with me to games in Sydney. I also got sent to national level tournaments where they do the scouting. I was really fortunate that I had a pretty quick rise up the chain. I'd only been refereeing for a few years, and I got the opportunity to go to nationals. It was quite challenging going into that environment. I'd come from a very small federation where it was mostly men; there was a lot of gender-based abuse. They weren't used to having a woman doing a “man's job”.
When I finished university, I had to decide whether I wanted to keep officiating. At first, I thought I would give it up, but when I moved to Canberra the referee's manager called me and encouraged me to keep at it. A position opened up four months later in the A-League Women, the highest women’s league in Australia. The timing all aligned. I joined and spent the next 13 years officiating matches. I currently hold the most appearances for referees in the women's game. What people don't understand about officials is that even though we're considered semi-professional athletes, all of us work other jobs. I would get up before work to train, then work all day, and then train more after work. I was very fortunate to be able to balance a prominent career and volunteer positions with officiating.
Bonito: What has it been like officiating as a woman in men's matches, and how do those experiences shape your advocacy work off the pitch, especially in terms of combatting referee abuse?
Delfina: When I moved to Canberra, I started officiating local men's competitions and the national league. I was only the third woman to referee in men's competitions in the Australian Capital Territory. A lot of things started happening around that time that opened my eyes to the opportunity I had. People don't often think of referees as leaders, but we're leading 22 players on the pitch. It's a non-traditional leadership role, and that gives us a chance to influence things for good. When you look at who typically becomes a coach or a referee, it's rarely women, so stepping into that space carries its own kind of influence.
A few years ago, I experienced a really nasty incident where someone came to the fence and threatened to sexually assault me over a decision, then followed me to my car afterward. I was deeply distressed. That's when I decided to start using my voice and platform more openly to push for change, everything from how officials are supported in Canberra to how they're paid. We're now one of the only federations in Australia that pays referees the same for men's and women's competitions. That took a lot of advocacy, and it's been a labor of love, especially the work around shifting culture.
I'm really passionate about how we treat one another and what respect should look like in the game, because for me, sport is a reflection of what we want to see in society. If we can't model that within sport, what chance do we have outside of it? Given how much of the country engages with sport in some way, it's a huge part of our national psyche.
Bonito: You mentioned finding a balance between your work as a match official and being a public servant. How did you manage to find roles that complemented each other, including your current job with Sport Integrity Australia?
Delfina: I was working in a public service agency focused on health when, during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, I managed to land a job working on that tournament, which was an incredible moment. Around the same time, the Professional Football Referees Association changed its constitution to allow women to join, which was a turning point for me personally. I joined the union and became its first woman vice president. In that role, I help ensure contracts are negotiated fairly with Football Australia and oversee things like officials' wellbeing and the code of conduct.
By 2024, I felt like I was at a crossroads in my career. I still loved officiating, but I knew it wasn't something I'd do forever, and I wanted another challenge. I was already doing advocacy work with the union and sitting on a board in Canberra mentoring and supporting young local women, but I had this sense that there might be something more for me. Then, almost as if the universe was listening, a program manager role at Sport Integrity Australia was advertised. My husband told me the job description read like it had been written for me, especially the focus on creating spaces for young women in places they might not traditionally picture themselves. I applied, and I got it.
For almost two years now, I've been working to change policy frameworks and build more inclusive cultural environments for young women across every sporting discipline in Australia. As an official, your job is to lead, to act with integrity, and to set the standard you want to see in the game, and I've been able to carry that into my day job in terms of the standard we want for Australian sport more broadly.
Football is huge here, and a lot of young women play. The Matildas are our most popular and recognizable national team. We've also hosted major international tournaments, including the recent Asian Cup. But what I really want is for more of the girls playing the game to transition into other roles too, officiating, coaching, or other leadership positions.
Bonito: Looking back at your entry into match officiating compared to now, what changes have you observed? And where would you like to see the needle move in the next 5 or 10 years?
Delfina: It's a very different landscape from the one I started in. When I first joined the A-League Women, our season was just six rounds. It took quite a while to build up to 22 rounds, which only happened after the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Before that, there was no full home-and-away structure. From a playing perspective, that barely gave teams enough time to gel. As an official, it meant one bad game could end your season; there was no room to bounce back or show what you could really do. I'd also go to training alongside my male colleagues and not get paid, while they did. That's where we were starting from just over 13 years ago. We were even given men's uniforms and expected to wear them and be grateful just to have a contract at all.
Now, Australia has its first full-time woman referee, which is huge. We also have access to sports psychology support that simply didn't exist back then. Personally, I didn't have many role models when I started. There were a few, and I was lucky enough to end up officiating alongside them. Now we've got formal mentoring programs in place. Through social media, I get a lot of messages from young women asking questions or looking for guidance, something I never had access to at their age. I'm big on sharing my own experiences, because officials are often invisible. On a good day, nobody notices us, we just quietly get on with the job. We're a team out there too, sometimes three of us, sometimes four, all working together toward the same goal. I believe in humanizing what we do, because there are so many transferable skills involved. What really matters is how you carry yourself, how you lead your team, and how well you communicate under pressure.
As for the social commentary side, I wish I could say it's gotten better across the board. There are bright spots, where we're amplifying stories and doing what we call yarning, a First Nations practice of storytelling. Other referees have been open about their experiences, which matters because it shifts the broader narrative. But there are still pockets of the community that fall back on "she's just a woman; she belongs in the kitchen" or "women don't belong in men's sports." I've earned my stripes and put in my time, and when I've spoken out, there's often a pile-on. Those moments are difficult. You read the vitriol, and you're human, so you absorb it. But I always remind myself it's not about me. It's about what I'm leaving behind for the next young woman coming up. I'll always speak out against it, because words matter, actions matter, and that's what actually shifts culture.
During the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup, there were five incredible women match officials serving as both referees and assistant referees, including Stéphanie Frappart, who also officiated at the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup, Tori Penso, and Katia Itzel García. They're truly inspirational. My hope is that we eventually reach a point where women officiating matches is normal, where we don't have to hype it up every time. It should be obvious that they're selected because they're competent, not as some kind of tokenistic gesture. Just the most qualified person for the job, who happens to be a woman.
Young women also need to see that there aren't extra pressures or barriers standing in their way. Even for me, before I broke into men's football, I had to fight for six years to debut, because of the comments and doubts around me. I knew I was good enough, and the clubs backed me, but the federation kept insisting I prove myself further. Meanwhile, my husband, who'd been refereeing at that level for less time than I had, got his debut before me. That showed me the gender gap was still there.
Football Australia is opening up more opportunities based on merit, and we now have more women officiating in the men's game at the national level in Australia. We're working to lower the barriers to entry, though there will always be purists who insist it's a different game. I always remind people: it's the same laws of the game. Ninety minutes, 11 players a side. I don't referee any differently whether it's a men's or women's match, and honestly, I think treating them differently cheapens the game.
Bonito: Through the Australian Sports Commission's Advisory Working Group, you're contributing to a national Officiating Action Plan focused on attracting, developing, supporting, and retaining officials. What's been most rewarding about that process, and what are the most pressing issues the plan is trying to address?
Delfina: It's great to see the Australian Sports Commission amplifying both the coaching and officiating pathways, with an advisory council for each. There are people involved at every level, from grassroots all the way up to high performance. The way this plan is being written could spark generational change. It sets out tangible things that national sporting bodies will need to act on, and there's an acknowledgment that match officials are critical to the game. It also takes the challenges officials face seriously, including in-person and online abuse, and the sheer time commitment of volunteering, while working to simplify the entry point and the whole pathway across sports.
Geography plays a huge role in Australia too, in whether we have enough people to cover games and build real experience. Officials are also an aging population, especially in football. The average referee in Australia is a white, middle-aged man. My hope is that by really digging into that, we can encourage more women, more LGBTQI+ people, and more First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse people to take up the whistle, so that our officials actually reflect the Australian population as a whole. I'm incredibly grateful to be part of this group. It's been rewarding to bring my own lived experience to it, while also drawing on my background working in government, understanding process, so we can embed this in a way that's usable and translatable, not just theoretical.
Right now, everything in Australian sport is on the green and gold runway toward the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, with several major events coming to Australia in that window. The legacy of a major sporting event is so critical, both the 10 years before and the 10 years after. That gives us a real opportunity in this non-traditional space, around how we upskill and support coaches and officials, and it's an exciting moment for that. The Australian Sports Commission does incredible work, not just in high performance, but in governing and funding participation in sport across the country and supporting the organizations behind it.
Bonito: Are there any countries, federations, or leagues you look to as meaningful reference points when it comes to advocacy and improving conditions for match officials, particularly women and gender-diverse people?
Delfina: In Australia, we tend to look to countries similar to us in demographics or governance, places like Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and Germany, and try to borrow the best bits from each. But really, looking across the world, every country is doing some things well and some things not so well. We've been adopting a lot from the UK, especially around youth development, which I think is critical. Whether someone eventually referees in the A-League or FIFA matches is irrelevant to me. What matters is that their experience along the way is good, that they get the education and support they need, because they won't keep coming back without it.
In Australia, referees typically start around age 14, then transition into senior football by their late teens. The highest dropout rate we see for young women, whether they're playing or officiating, is between 15 and 16, which often lines up with their first job, getting their license, a new relationship, or moving away from home. If we can keep them engaged through that window, they're far more likely to transition into senior football and stick around for the long term.
In Canberra, our current referee turnover rate is 44%. That's a staggering number when you consider how many hours it takes to train someone. If that kind of turnover happened in any other workplace, there would be an outcry. Imagine roughly half your workforce simply not showing up the next year. That's why youth development matters so much, and it's something Australian sport sometimes overlooks. We tend to assume elite officials and coaches just grow on trees. It's essential to make that early experience as good as it can be, and just as important, to have real support in place when something does go wrong, so people stay engaged rather than walking away.
Looking at overseas models has helped here too, things like dedicated wellbeing officers, or a non-denominational sports chaplain, someone available to talk to if a game goes badly or something difficult happens. As a senior match official myself, a lot of the younger officials starting out now know they can reach me anytime. I always make time for the things that matter.
Bonito: Is there a moment throughout your career, whether officiating or in your advocacy work, that really stands out to you? An anecdote you might share with someone looking to become a match official.
Delfina: I was really fortunate to be selected to referee the 2022 A-League Women grand final between Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory. Not many people get to do the big dance. I still get emotional talking about it. I remember preparing for that game and thinking, I never would have imagined that the girl from Dapto, Wollongong, who took up refereeing just to make some pocket money, would end up on the biggest stage for women's football in this country.
Growing up, I never saw anyone who looked like me in that role. There were no ethnic girls doing this. I was an anomaly. When I started out in the elite space, everyone told me I'd never last, that I didn't have it in me, that I didn't fit the mold. But I was determined to work hard and make myself proud, and make everyone around me proud, because I never wanted anyone else to feel like they didn't belong.
When I finally reached that game, I remember thinking, I hope other young women see this and think, I'm like her, and if she can do it on the biggest stage, I can do it too one day. It meant so much having my family there to share it with me: my mum, my sister, and my best friend and now husband.
Another favorite moment was during a national women's-level game in Brisbane. There was a little girl running along behind me on the sidelines, copying everything I did. A friend snapped a photo, and you can see her there, blonde ringlets, maybe two or three years old, my shadow for the entire match. I kept thinking about how when young girls see women, or other young women, doing something, they start to believe they can do it too. So hopefully one day that little girl looks back at that photo and thinks, I was that little girl, and I can be like her. That's all I really care about.
That's why this work matters to me. I never want anyone to think they're not good enough, or too much, or not enough, because there is a place for you in sport, whatever that role looks like. If the opinionated girl from Wollongong can make it to the elite level, so can you.
I never set out to have a name that's become synonymous with refereeing in this country. It happened because I refused to settle for the status quo. I always said the hard things and pushed for things to be better, because I know firsthand how much joy sport has given me, and I'll never take that for granted or get hung up on what didn't go my way, or the noise online. I retired from the A-League Women last April, fittingly at the same fixture in the same stadium where my A-League career began. It felt like a real full-circle moment. I'm incredibly honored to still have a voice in the game I love, and I hope I'm inspiring the next generation while giving back in different ways now that I'm off the field in a leadership role. And yes, I'll still be out there running around, terrorizing the local men's competitions.
