The FIFA Referees Committee released on May 2 a list of 88 match officials from more than 40 countries selected to officiate at the Olympic Football Tournament in Rio 2016. The youngest among the appointed referees for the men’s competition is Saudi international referee Fahad Al Mirdasi. He will be assisted by Saudi referees Abdulah Al Shalwai and Mohammed Al Abakry, forming one of the three trios representing the Asian Football Confederation in Rio.
The 30-old physical education teacher started officiating in 2003 and became a FIFA referee in 2011. In 2015, Mirdasi became the first Saudi to officiate an international final match when he refereed the FIFA World Cup U-20 final between Brazil and Serbia.
He was named Asia’s best football referee in 2015 by the AFC and was awarded the Mohammed Bin Rashid Creative Sports Award, along with the Golden Whistle Prize by the Lebanese magazine Al-Hadath Riadhi.
Coincidently, the runner up for that award, Egyptian referee Ghead Grisha, is the only other Arab referee appointed as a leading referee for the Olympic Football Tournament in Rio. The Arab referees are looking forward to Rio, hoping it leads them to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Since Saudi Arabia's first participation in the Olympic Games in 1972, the kingdom has been represented in eight Summer Olympic Games, winning one silver and two bronze medals.
Nonetheless, when the Olympic spotlight was on Saudi Arabia during the London Olympics in 2012, it was for reasons beyond athletic performance. The kingdom had finally agreed to send two female athletes to represent it at the games.