Vincent Kompany welcomes Rebecca Welch's 'milestone' appointment for Fulham v Burnley game

The 40-year-old will create history at Craven Cottage on Saturday when she becomes the first female to officiate a Premier League game.

Welch, who hails from Washington in Tyne and Wear, was also the first woman to referee matches in the Championship and FA Cup third round.

“It’s certainly a benchmark, it’s a milestone,” Kompany said.

“I think she will take pride in having done it herself, but a lot of women in general but in the game as well will see this as a way to achieve at the highest level.

“I’m always pro any kind of extension as well because what it does is widen the pool of talent and I do think we need access to all the available talent to all the best referees in the best league in the world.”

When asked if he expects his players to behave any differently with a female official, Kompany added: “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t allow it anyway, but in general it shouldn’t.

“Whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know! But in the end we want to win our games, the opposition team wants to win their games and it’s about the players on the pitch. It shouldn’t really be about the official or the manager. It should be about the players.

“In that sense, I can’t see why we wouldn’t have that sense of normality. Of course the story is big and deserves to be bigger, but once the whistle blows every actor on the day will want the players to be highlighted.”

Elsewhere in the top flight, referee Sam Allison will become the first black referee to take charge of a Premier League game since former official Uriah Rennie in 2008.

The 42-year-old will officiate the Boxing Day match between Sheffield United and Luton Town.

“They are little milestones,” Kompany said. “But what you need to look at, it’s not always what it means for the person, it’s just behind it there are a lot of people who don’t think it’s possible, don’t think they can achieve it.

“By seeing these examples they can think ‘I could be the next one’ or maybe ‘I could do something positive’.

“To give opportunities to dreams, that’s important at every level of society. Hopefully we will get there one day [where it’s not newsworthy] but I still think we’re a little bit away from that.

“You know what I’m thinking, what I would love to see in the news is boardroom announcements where you see multi-coloured, multi-ethical boardrooms that make decisions about what we’re going to discuss during the week.

“At this moment in time, what do we hear? This newspaper will write left, this paper will write right and then this one is pro, this one is against. I’d like to see those pro and against in the same boardrooms and actually come up with a balanced report of things. That’s what I believe in things.”