Brazilian lineswoman Ana Paula Oliveira has no regrets
about posing nude for Playboy magazine even though she has not been
selected to officiate at a professional game since. However, the
29-year-old, who has taken to refereeing amateur games, was still
hoping to be given the chance to the return to the touchline at
top-flight matches.
"I want to make it clear that I have no regrets, on the contrary I
have a strong personality," she told Brazilian television before
taking charge of a game in the small town of Maracai, around 450 km
west of Sao Paulo.
"Everywhere I go, I get a lot of support from the public and people
tell me that if I persist, I will get another chance. "This is not
the same as being at a top game but it helps."
Television pictures showed a crowd of several thousand people --
more than some Brazilian first division games -- turned out to
watch, many apparently more interested in Oliveira than the match
itself.
Oliveira, who has not officially been suspended since the magazine
was published in July, last month made a tearful public appeal to
the Brazilian Football Confederation's refereeing commission to
allow her to officiate again. "I will do the impossible to come
back," said Oliveira, who earlier this year was given a three-match
ban for her performance in a Botafogo-Figueirense Copa Brasil
tie.
