Spanish woman ref at the top
First in División de Honor
Paloma Loza will make history this weekend – the first woman to referee in Spain's top league, the División de Honor.
The match she will referee is between Spyro Bera Bera of San Sebastián and USAP Barcelona in the Miniestadio at Anoeta.
Loza, a physiotherapy graduate, started playing rugby at a young age, first with Alcobendas and then with Majadahonda where her career as a player took off.
She played in the first-ever international for Spanish Women's against New Zealand and in 1991 was at the Women's World Cup in Wales when Spain ended in a respectable 6th place.
She was in the team in 1995 when it won the European Championship in Treviso and again in 19897 when Spain came third in Nice.
Loza stopped playing shortly before the 2002 Women's World Cup in Barcelona. That year she started refereeing in Madrid and four years later she is on Spain's top panel of referees. She has been refereeing regularly in Spain's second league, División de Honor B, and last weekend refereed one of the quarter-finals of the play-offs for promotion to División de Honor B.
She has been appointed to the European Women's Sevens Championship in Limoges.
