Doumouh Ibrahim Al Bakkar ( ar, دموع ابراهيم البقار; born 7 April 1990) is a Lebanese football referee who officiates primarily in the

Lebanese Women's Football League The Lebanese Women's Football League ( ar, الدوري اللبناني لكرة القدم للسيدات) is the only league of women's football in Lebanon. It is run by the Lebanese Football Association and began in May 2008, with six teams ...

. Starting out as a player and coach, Al Bakkar became a referee in 2014. In addition to women's matches, she has also officiated men's matches domestically, at both senior and youth level. Al Bakkar has refereed in various women's international competitions, such as the AFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament,

AFC Asian Cup qualification The AFC Asian Cup qualificationThe notation used in the logo for the qualifiers is "AFC Asian Qualifiers" is the process that a national association football team goes through to qualify for the final tournament of AFC Asian Cup. The qualification ...

Arab Cup The FIFA Arab Cup ( ar, كأس العرب, translit=Kaʾs al-ʿArab), or simply Arab Cup, is an international association football competition which has been organized by FIFA since 2021, and is contested by the senior men's national teams of ...

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, also known as the SEA Games, is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supe ...

and

WAFF Championship The West Asian Football Federation Championship (), or simply WAFF Championship, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF), the g ...

. She was also part of the refereeing team in the

2017 Summer Universiade The 2017 Summer Universiade (), officially known as the XXIX Summer Universiade ( zh, t=第二十九屆夏季世界大學運動會, p=Dì èrshíjiǔ jiè xiàjì shìjiè dàxué yùndònghuì) and commonly called Taipei 2017 ( zh, t=台北2 ...

final. In 2021, Al Bakkar became the first woman to officiate a

Lebanese Premier League The Lebanese First Division ( ar, الدوري اللبناني الدرجة الأولى), commonly known as the Lebanese Premier League (), is the top division of the Lebanese football league system. There are 12 teams competing in the league, ...

game.

Early life

Born on 7 April 1990 in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

, Lebanon, Al Bakkar studied at a private school in

Zgharta Zgharta ( ar, زغرتا, syc, ܙܓܪܬܐ), also spelled Zghorta, is a city in North Lebanon, with an estimated population of around 50,000. It is the second biggest city in Northern Lebanon after Tripoli. Zgharta is about 150 metres above sea ...

. She practised various sports in school, which led her to play

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

for Shabab Al Azm and

Homenetmen Homenetmen ( hy, Հ.Մ.Ը.Մ., , short for hy, Հայ Մարմնակրթական Ընդհանուր Միութիւն, meaning ''Armenian General Athletic Union'') is a pan-Armenian Armenian Diaspora, diaspora organization devoted to sport and sco ...

. After finishing her national diploma, Al Bakkar played football for Arabi Tripoli aged 16. Aged 19, she began coaching various girls teams.

Career

Al Bakkar got interested in refereeing in 2014, when she attended a "Referees of Tomorrow" training course, organized by the

Lebanese Football Association The Lebanese Football Association (LFA) ( ar, الاتحاد اللبناني لكرة القدم, Al-Ittiḥād Al-Lubnānī Likurat Al-Qadam; french: Fédération Libanaise de Football) is the governing body of association football in Lebanon. ...

(LFA) in cooperation with lecturers from the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

(AFC). She stated that there were eight women participating in the session, with her being the only one to pass the fitness test. She began by officiating women's matches domestically in 2014, both in the youth league and the

. In 2016, Al Bakkar received the FIFA badge. She took part in the

in Taipei; she was the first referee in the quarter-final match between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and part of the refereeing team in the final between

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and Brazil. The same year, Al Bakkar began officiating men's youth matches domestically, in addition to senior matches in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, Third Division, and

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

. In 2017, Al Bakkar officiated a men's

friendly game Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

between

sides Safa and

Tadamon Sour Tadamon Sour Sporting Club ( ar, نادي التضامن الرياضي صور, lit=Solidarity Sporting Club Tyre), or simply Tadamon, is a football club based in Tyre, Lebanon, that competes in the . They play their home matches at the Tyre ...

, in the

Safa Stadium The Safa Stadium ( ar, ملعب نادي الصفاء الرياضي) is a multi-use stadium in Beirut, Lebanon. It is currently used mostly for football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball ...

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. Regarding her experience refereeing a match between two top-tier men's clubs, Al Bakkar stated that "some players were surprised at the idea of a woman officiating the game, others laughed. But of course, on the other hand, some were cooperative and offered me words of encouragement". Al Bakkar was listed as an AFC Elite referee in 2018, which allowed her to officiated at the international level. She refereed in multiple matches in the 2019 AFC U-16 and U-19 Women's Championships, and in the

2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament The 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament was the 5th edition of the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament, the quadrennial international football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine which women ...

. Al Bakkar also officiated in the

2019 WAFF Women's Championship The 2019 West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship was the 6th edition of the WAFF Women's Championship, the international women's football championship of Western Asia organised by the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF). It was he ...

, as well as several other local and international competitions in the Middle East. Al Bakkar was one of two Lebanese referees to officiate the inaugural edition of the

WAFF Women's Clubs Championship The WAFF Women's Clubs Championship ( ar, بطولة غرب آسيا لأندية السيدات) is an international women's association football competition. It involves club teams from countries affiliated with the West Asian governing body ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. She also refereed at the

2019 Southeast Asian Games The 2019 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 30th Southeast Asian Games, or the 30th SEA Games, and commonly known as Philippines 2019, was the 30th edition of the Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport event which ...

. Bakkar became the first woman to referee a

match on 17 April 2021, in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

derby between Chabab Ghazieh and Tadamon Sour. In 2021, she refereed in the

2021 Arab Women's Cup The 2021 Arab Women's Cup ( ar, كأس العرب للسيدات 2021) was the second edition of the Arab Women's Cup for national women's football teams affiliated with the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA). The tournament was hosted by ...

and the

2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification The 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification was the qualification tournament for the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup. A total of twelve teams qualified to play in the final tournament in India. The host country India and the top three teams of the p ...

, while in 2022 she officiated the

2022 WAFF Women's Championship The 2022 West Asian Football Federation Women's Championship, or simply 2022 WAFF Women's Championship, was the 7th edition of the WAFF Women's Championship, the international women's football championship of Western Asia organised by the West A ...

Personal life

Al Bakkar has a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in political and administrative sciences at the

Lebanese University The Lebanese University (LU) (, ) is the only public university in Beirut, Lebanon. It is ranked #701–750 worldwide in terms of education. The creation of the Lebanese University was an idea first mentioned in the speech of the former Minist ...

, and worked as a

Human Resources Manager Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

at Baytna Foundation in her hometown

. Her husband also works as a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bakkar, Doumouh 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Tripoli, Lebanon Lebanese women's footballers Al Arabi Tripoli SC players Lebanese Women's Football League players Lebanese football referees Women association football referees Women's association football referees Lebanese University alumni Human resource management people Women's association footballers not categorized by position