12 Facts About Sonia Denoncourt

Sonia Denoncourt was born on June 25,1964 and is a retired soccer referee from Canada.

Sonia Denoncourt worked for FIFA as head of women's referee development, Director of Refereeing at Concacaf and currently work as the North America Academy Director at You Are The Ref International.

Sonia Denoncourt graduated from the Universite de Sherbrooke with a degree in physical education and later attained a master's degree in Sports Administration from the University of Ottawa.

Sonia Denoncourt began refereeing in 1978 at the age of just 14 and later decided to give up playing the game to further her career as a referee at the age of 22.

Sonia Denoncourt became the first female FIFA accredited referee in 1994.

Sonia Denoncourt went on to referee the 1995,1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups.

Women's football was made its debut at the Summer Olympics in 1996 and Sonia Denoncourt was selected as one of four female referees that would officiate in the tournament and she refereed the first ever women's football match in the Olympics when she took charge of a match between Germany and Japan.

Sonia Denoncourt officiated a semi-final match between Norway and United States and was the Fourth official in the final.

In February 1997, Sonia Denoncourt became the first female to referee a professional men's match in Brazil, when she officiated the opening Campeonato Paulista fixture between Sao Jose Esporte Clube and defending champions Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras.

Sonia Denoncourt's performance was criticized by the away team's players, coach and supporters after she sent off Cafu and disallowed a goal by Djalminha.

Sonia Denoncourt was selected as one of the nine match officials that would participate in the 2000 Olympic football tournaments.

Sonia Denoncourt refereed two group matches, Australia vs Sweden and Norway vs China, and was picked to referee in the women's football final at the 2000 Olympics between Norway and United States.