Salma set for history

Salma Akhter is set to make history as she will become the first female Bangladeshi referee to officiate a game outside South Asia when she takes charge in the football event of the upcoming South-East Asian Games in Cambodia.

She will work as an assistant referee in the eight-team tournament, which will run from May 3 to 15. Salma will leave for Cambodia on May 1.

“I feel very good because this is the first time I will be doing so (refereeing in a match outside South Asia). However, every match is equal to me. Now, I am going to a new place, where everything will be different,” she told The Business Post.

This is not the first time Salma has etched her name in record books as she was also the first Bangladeshi female to enter the Asian Football Confederation’s elite panel of referees, which happened in February this year.

She earned the FIFA assistant referee badge in 2021 and she also became the first female to officiate a match in the men’s Bangladesh Premier League, the highest division of the country, when she worked as an assistant referee in the match between Arambagh Krira Shangha and Uttar Baridhara Club on August 16, 2021.

Salma hopes this will inspire girls to become interested in her trade.

“Hopefully, if I can do something well, girls will get inspired by me and try to work in this sector,” the referee said.