Anoud al-Asmari, Saudi Arabia’s first feminine worldwide referee, was appointed by FIFA in every week previous Saudi Arabia’s soccer victories.
Al-Asmari was appointed by the worldwide soccer affiliation on Thursday, lower than a yr after the debut of Saudi Arabia’s first girls’s nationwide crew.
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“I’m completely happy to be the primary Saudi feminine referee to obtain the worldwide badge within the historical past of Saudi sports activities,” al-Asmari, one among eight Saudi referees on the worldwide panel introduced by the world group, instructed AFP.
In the identical week, Portuguese soccer participant and five-time Ballon D’or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, landed in Saudi Arabia after his historic cope with Al Nassr Soccer Membership.
Saudi Arabia is making a reputation for itself on the worldwide soccer scene. Soccer, the primary sport of Saudi Arabia, has continued to realize significance and momentum in recent times, particularly after the nationwide crew’s victory towards Argentina within the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the place your entire squad was in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi girls in sports activities
The appointment of Al-Asmari can be the ultimate historic milestone for ladies’s soccer in Saudi Arabia. In December, the Kingdom submitted its bid to host the AFC Girls’s Asian Cup 2026.
Saudi Arabia’s transfer to bid on the women-only occasion is an instance of the nation’s efforts to unlock untapped potential and alternatives for ladies and ladies in Asia.
The Saudi Arabia girls’s nationwide soccer crew gained its first worldwide match in its historical past, beating the Seychelles on February 20, 2022. (Twitter)
If the bid to host the competitors is profitable, Saudi Arabia will play a significant position in advancing girls’s sports activities management at dwelling and overseas.
Yasser Almisehal, President of the Saudi Arabian Soccer Federation (SAFF), mentioned on the time: “The way forward for girls’s soccer in Saudi Arabia is brilliant and we’re decided to develop the sport right here and all through Asia. Increasingly more younger ladies are enjoying soccer on this nation and we wish to encourage them extra. Internet hosting the AFC Girls’s Asian Cup 2026 will likely be an amazing alternative for our gamers and will likely be made unforgettable by the fervour of our followers.”
Over the previous three years, vital investments have been made in grassroots participant improvement, competitions, teaching and extra, together with the primary girls’s soccer league and ladies’ colleges league.
The ladies’s crew was formally established in 2019 by the Saudi Arabian Soccer Federation, which is dwelling to 450 registered gamers, 49 certified referees and over 900 coaches.
Learn extra:
Saudi Arabia presents official bid for AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026
Cristiano Ronaldo spotted enjoying a Riyadh winter evening in Diriyah