First ever all-female referee team to oversee Jordanian Pro League football match

First ever all-female referee team to oversee Jordanian Pro League football match
It is the first time in Jordan's history that an all-male game will be overseen by a team of women referees.
2 min read
02 November, 2021
At the Women's World Cup Semi Final match in 2016 in Amman, Jordan [FIFA/AFP]

A Jordanian Pro League football match on Tuesday evening will be supervised by an all-female referee team - the first time in the kingdom's history. 

The football match will see all-male Sahab SC and Al-Bara'a Club teams compete in the last round of the Jordan Pro League championship.

The referee team will be led by international referee Israa Mobaideen, assisted by Islam Al-Abadi, Sabreen Al-Abadi and Haneen Murad.

"All support and best of luck to Isra Mobaideen," former MP Tareq Khoury tweeted on Tuesday. 

Mobaideen is an internationally certified referee. She supervised qualifier matches in the 2021 Women's Cup of the Asia Football Confederation along with her colleague Islam Al-Abadi. In 2020, the Saudi Football Association also hired the four female Jordanian referees to manage matches in Saudi Arabia's first women's football league.

Local media welcomed the historic moment and Prince Ali bin Hussein, the half brother of Jordan's King Abdallah, also retweeted the news in support.

The move is part of the Jordan Football Federation's efforts to promote women referees in football.

Jordan has hosted several international women's football events over the past years, including the Women's World Cup for under-17s in 2016 and the Women's Asian Cup in 2018.