“If I tried to play, it would have been impossible to get support for the cause, as it was actually illegal for women to do it at that time,” she says.
“But being a referee was a way to get in. There was nothing specifically against it in the law – women were banned from kicking a ball there was no mention of blowing whistles.”
In 1967, Campos enrolled on an eight-month refereeing course and passed in August. But she may not have been the first woman in the world to do so – identifying football’s first female referee is harder than first appears.
In 2018 it was reported that Fifa had recognised a Turkish woman, Drahsan Arda,, external as the first, in a letter sent to her. Arda received her referee’s licence in November 1967, taking charge of her first match in June 1968. She sent supporting documentation to Fifa and received a reply, which Fifa says was misinterpreted; it simply recognised she was one of football’s first female referees.
Another candidate has recently been brought to its attention – Ingrid Holmgren,, external a Swedish woman who is believed to have qualified in 1966. Then there is Edith Klinger,, external an Austrian thought to have worked as a referee in 1935.
Fifa does not feel able to say with certainty who was the first but it acknowledges the importance of researching this and is keen to help investigate further.
What can be said definitively is that Campos was one of the first. But qualifying from her course was just the start of a long battle with the patriarchy of the CBD. After she finished her studies they refused to give her a licence, claiming the legislation that banned female footballers in Brazil also banned female officials.
“I sought legal advice and was assured that there was nothing in the text that made that distinction,” Campos says. “But the authorities did not want to listen.”
What followed were years spent pleading her case with the CBD and Havelange. She sought to raise awareness by organising friendly matches where she could officiate, some involving women players, which were often broken up by police. In times of severe repression in Brazil such ‘dissent’ wasn’t taken lightly; Campos claims she was arrested “at least 15 times”.
But in 1971 she received a letter that gave her extra energy to fight her cause: an invitation to participate in the unofficial Women’s World Cup in Mexico. She did not want to let the chance pass, but needed to get past Havelange, until then an unmovable obstacle.
The only way was to resort to a superior power. For a second time, Campos’ beauty pageant past came to her aid.