Twitterati Are All Praise For A British Referee Who Stops A Local Match Out Of Respect For The Adhan
British referee Mark Clattenburg is one of the most recognizable faces amongst football referees. He was the referee for many notable matches like the 2016 UEFA Champions League Final and the UEFA Euro 2016 Final.
He is currently the Head of Refereeing for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation and his gesture during a local cup match has earned him wide-praise.
According to the BBC, Mark Clattenburg stopped a match between Al Feiha and Al-Fateh when the Islamic call to prayer was sounded.
The match was being played at the King Salman Sports City Stadium in Majmah, which is the home stadium of Al Feiha.
The teams were level at 1 -1 and the match was running in extra time when the match was stopped by Clattenburg due to the adhan. When the match resumed Al Feiha scored their second goal, which was enough to see them through to the quarter-finals.
Twitter was all praise for Clattenburg for his gesture.
@clattenburg1975 Mr. Mark, today you proved to the world one of the most beautiful goals of sports (love, co-existence and peace) and that’s when non-Muslim referee stopped the match of respect of prayer calling
Thank you and with the best wishes you more success— Kamal Khalifa (@kamalkhalifa) January 24, 2018
@clattenburg1975 @Turki_alalshikh
Today you made our day Mr. Mark, The humanity which you owned amazed most of the Saudis. Thanks so much Your humanism. ❤️❤️— حاكم هبيش (@_Hakem_) January 24, 2018