{"id":32731,"date":"2019-02-15T17:44:57","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T17:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=32731"},"modified":"2019-02-15T17:44:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T17:44:57","slug":"meet-desislava-one-of-the-referees-changing-the-face-of-world-snooker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/15\/meet-desislava-one-of-the-referees-changing-the-face-of-world-snooker\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet one of the referees changing the face of snooker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_32742\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32742\" style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32742\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2.png 1280w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-770x513.png 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-1155x770.png 1155w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-293x195.png 293w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32742\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-32742\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2.png 1280w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-770x513.png 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-500x333.png 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-1155x770.png 1155w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-370x247.png 370w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/02\/desislava-2-293x195.png 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/><\/noscript> Desislava Bozhilova has been officiating in the men&#8217;s game for over six years<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nIN 2001, the chief executive of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Jim McKenzie, said he wanted to change the stuffy, all-male image of the sport.<br \/>\nToday, a number of female referees have emerged and officiate every week at tournaments all over the world.<br \/>\nUnlike rugby, football and cricket, for instance, women regularly referee at the highest level of the men\u2019s professional game.<br \/>\nI spoke to referee Desislava Bozhilova, who told me how she came to be a snooker referee, despite growing up in the Bulgarian town of Silven where snooker was rarely played.<br \/>\nMs Bozhilova said: \u201cI played pool and watched snooker on TV. When I moved to Sofia I started playing and getting involved.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8220;As a young woman, you definitely have to prove yourself at the beginning, but no matter who you are you can do it if you work hard.<br \/>\n\u201cIt is a bit unusual, at least people think so, but as the game becomes more popular around the world, more people have become part of it.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are younger referees than me who are doing a good job. It doesn\u2019t matter, it\u2019s about being good enough.\u201d<br \/>\nThe extent to which she felt snooker is a game for all was striking, especially when you consider that it has only been 17 years since a woman first officiated a men\u2019s ranking event.<br \/>\nMs Bozhilova said: \u201cSexism is not a thing here, not any more. Probably before Michaela (Tabb, the first female referee in the men\u2019s game) it was different, now it is not even an issue.\u201d<br \/>\nMs Bozhilova said she thought snooker had a bright future and it will be a big part of hers: \u201cI love it, you travel the world and meet interesting people and I love the game also. That makes it perfect.<br \/>\n\u201cI do have other interests. I work in architecture between tournaments occasionally, but for now snooker is the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IN 2001, the chief executive of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Jim McKenzie, said he wanted to change the stuffy, all-male image of the sport. Today, a number of female referees have emerged and officiate every week at tournaments all over the world. Unlike rugby, football and cricket, for instance, women regularly referee at the highest level of the men\u2019s professional game. I spoke to referee Desislava Bozhilova, who told me how she came to be a snooker [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":32742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,579,4],"tags":[578,580,74],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-32731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-snooker","category-sport","tag-motorpoint-arena","tag-snooker-2","tag-sport-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet one of the referees changing the face of snooker - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2019\/02\/15\/meet-desislava-one-of-the-referees-changing-the-face-of-world-snooker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet one of the referees changing the face of snooker - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IN 2001, the chief executive of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Jim McKenzie, said he wanted to change the stuffy, all-male image of the sport. Today, a number of female referees have emerged and officiate every week at tournaments all over the world. Unlike rugby, football and cricket, for instance, women regularly referee at the highest level of the men\u2019s professional game. 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