Farida, the Bangladeshi girl refereeing football matches in Germany

Prothom Alo   13 July 2020
Badiuzzaman

Dhaka

We hardly see any woman running all over the ground with a whistle while there are 22 male footballers and two male assistant referees on the field. But the picture is very familiar in European football now thanks to girls like Farida Kajal.

Farida, a Bangladeshi, is a familiar face to the referees of the German football leagues now. She once played in Pioneer Football, Bangamata and Bangabandhu School Football, Club Cup, District and Divisional tournaments in Dhaka and showed her unique skills.

The girl from Shariatpur might have never thought that the experience would be useful this way. It has brought her immense fortune. In addition to referring various matches in the local football league in Leipzig, Farida also acts as a referee in many tournaments in Berlin.

In 2007, Farida also played cricket in Dhaka. Earlier, she played football for Abahani for three years. Although she was selected for the national women’s team, she did not play for the Tigresses.

Heart-broken, Farida started playing cricket as well as starting a training to become a football referee. After passing the qualifying test of the referees’ committee of the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF), she worked as a referee in a number of tournaments in the country till 2014.

At one time she also did a volleyball referral course. In addition to referrals, Farida holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a master’s degree from Dhaka University.

In addition to her academic studies, Farida passed BPED from the Physical Education College in 2011. It was becoming difficult for her to run her own expenses by referring only. She had worked as a sports teacher at Bangladesh International School and Australian International School in Dhaka for a few years.

In 2014, she got the opportunity to study sports at the University of Leipzig, Germany. She was admitted to the university in 2015 on a scholarship given by the German government. Besides studying, she also started learning German in those days. She began to look for opportunities for referrals. She applied in the Germany’s fifth tier club FC Grima expressing her interest. The club was satisfied to see all the documents of Farida. She was then given the opportunity to referee in the local league with the help of FC Grima Club.

“My first match was on 31 January, 2016,” said Farida, noting that the experience of playing on the first day in Germany was excellent.

“I was a little scared, but everything went well. Everyone praised me after the match,” she added.

Farida has never been treated differently for being a girl. She said, “I was scared at first that I am brown. I thought they would not respect me. But they have cooperated well in every match. I was never treated differently for being a girl.”

Farida has already received a medal for her good performance in the local league. “I gave a red card to a goalkeeper once in a men’s football match. The boy had come out of the penalty box and caught the ball. Later he realised his mistake and apologised to me.”

Farida watches games of the German Bundesliga at the stadium whenever she gets a chance. She enjoyed many matches of FC Schalke, Bayern Munich, along with local Arabic Leipzig, in Leipzig Stadium. Due to the coronavirus, all football related activities in Leipzig are currently halted. Farida cannot wait to return to the field as soon as the lockdown is lifted.

* This piece, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Farjana Liakat

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