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Women's World Cup: Scotland's Kylie Cockburn will be an assistant in France

Kylie Cockburn and other referees and u17s Women's World CupImage source, Getty/FIFA
Image caption,

Cockburn (right) assisted at the Under-17s Women's World Cup in Uruguay

The only Scot officiating at next summer's Women's World Cup says it is "surreal and hasn't quite sunk in".

Police officer Kylie Cockburn, 30, has been selected as an assistant referee for France 2019, which also marks Scotland's first World Cup.

The Baillieston official has refereed domestic men's games and been an assistant at Scottish Premiership level over the past four years.

"I never thought I'd get there," she told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland.

"The difference between domestic football and World Cup football is the nerves, because it's a world stage and you know people from everywhere are watching.

"I get more nervous but you get more out of it, because when you do the match and know you've done well you feel really good."

Cockburn recently returned from Uruguay, where she was involved in the Under-17 Women's World Cup, and last year she officiated at the Algarve Cup, in which the top women's nations compete.

She will now join in overseeing the eighth edition of the World Cup.

"When I started one of my main goals was to referee at a World Cup," she said.

"Now I'm allowing myself to realise it's going to happen your head then thinks the next thing is the final - that would be my aim to work hard and put myself in contention for the best matches.

"My aim was to do a match in the men's Premiership - an Old Firm match, a Scottish Cup final, then involvement in men's international football."

Image source, Kylie Cockburn
Image caption,

Cockburn has switched from emergency to community policing to fit in her life as a referee

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