Heba Saadia is to become the first Palestinian match official to attend the FIFA Women's World Cup, also becoming one of the first Arab woman to achieve this feat. She was previously selected as part of the team to officiate matches at the 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup in Vietnam, and officiated Women's Asian Cup matches in India last year.
Saadia started refereeing at the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp, where she was born to Palestinian parents and continued to specialise in sports when she studied in Damascus at university, in physical education. "I was watching a group of referees train and noticed they had no women among them," said Saadia last year in an interview with Palestine TV Sports and Youth Channel. "When I asked them about it, they suggested I join them, so I did." Saadia worked with the Syrian Football Association as a fourth official at first, but was forced to move to Malaysia in 2012, when the civil war in the country broke out. After working with the Football Association of Malaysia, she moved again to begin working with the Swedish Football Federation, where she received her international badge in 2016. Saadia is to work as assistant referee at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, scheduled to take place from July 20 to August 20. (Source: ITG)
Anoud Al-Asmari became the first Saudi female referee to receive the international badge from FIFA. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) published the list of Saudi international referees for 2023, which includes 8 referees, 9 assistant referees, and 6 video assistant referees, along with a futsal referee. There is a single woman: Anoud Al-Asmari. “I am happy to be the first Saudi female referee to receive the international badge in the history of Saudi sports,” Asmari told AFP. According to the Saudi Gazette, 34-year-old Al-Asmari began her career as a referee in 2018, when she refereed a series of matches for the Saudi women’s national team. In November 2021, Saudi Arabia launched the domestic women’s league with the participation of 16 teams, just a few years after the ban on women playing the game was lifted. Saudi women’s national team, coached by German veteran Monica Stapp, played its first official match in February 2022 when it beat Seychelles 2-0. Saudi Arabia submitted a request to host the 2026 Asian Women’s Cup and is currently the only candidate to host the Men’s Asian Cup in 2027. (Source: Siasat)