Feiruz Abdullahi is celebrating being awarded Manchester FA County Referee of the Year and is inspiring family to follow the same path.
The 28-year-old, who is in her third season of refereeing, was “taken aback” by the accolade and has enjoyed a remarkable rise in such a short time.
Currently at Level 5 in the men’s game and 3W in the women’s, Feiruz is working on promotion to Level 4. The recognition has continued, with Manchester FA naming her Grassroots Referee of the Year last season, followed by her appointment for the first time as a referee in the first round of the Women’s FA Cup.
Feiruz is known to the L&C and led an all-female BAME team of officials in last season’s L&C Cup Quarter Final, something that she described as a “career highlight.”
She said: “It has been a joy meeting all the new people through refereeing meetings and officiating in a variety of matches in both the male and female game. Every match presents a different challenge – it’s like stepping into the unknown and it keeps you on your toes.”
Her journey is being followed by her borther who has taken on the BAME refereeing course and Feiruz said: “It has been great to see him following in my footsteps, especially as I had followed in his footsteps as a player! It is amazing to see that I have inspired him to become a referee and hopefully he can also act as a role model for the upcoming referees from BAME communities.”
That goal of inspiring others drives Feiruz who wants to see more courses for under-represented communities run by referees who come from the BAME group, and her ambitions are to become a role model for the younger generation of referees. She said: “We have already had the likes of Sam Ellison – Level 1, Jawahir Roble – Level 6, Alyssa Nichols – the first black woman referee in the MLS – proving to us that Muslim women can also be great match officials and help change the game for the better. I played at tier 3 in women’s football and want to use that experience to help me on my refereeing journey and make me the best referee I can be.”
There is still much progress to be made though. As Feiruz notes, when the FIFA list for UK match officials was announced, there was no black official representing – something that’s a “great disappointment” and highlights “we are still underrepresented at the top level.”
But she believes recent changes have opened the door for females from the black community and her ambitions are to ascend to the top of her profession: “It would be a dream to become the first black female official in the EFL and referee in the WSL and one day make it as a FIFA match official.”