From Somalia to Wembley: The trailblazing referee told that football ‘is a man’s game’

Football has never been just a hobby for Jawahir Roble; it’s her passion.Born in Somalia, the 25-year-old grew up playing football with friends. They would spend almost every waking minute kicking a ball around the beaches until their parents called them in for dinner.

She loved it. She loved her “beautiful” country. But civil war changed all that.Somalia was plunged into chaos after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Following his ouster, clan warlords and militants battled for control, sparking mayhem nationwide.

No longer safe in their own home, Roble’s family fled to England when she was just 10 years old.She still remembers the journey and her parents telling her not to speak to anyone until they got to the airport.

“I never, ever, in a million years, dreamed of leaving Somalia,” she told CNN Sport.”We struggled a lot as a family because imagine […] nobody speaks English in a whole new country. Who is going to fill out the papers? It was difficult.”

Refuge in the UK

The one positive for the family was their eventual location — a house in the shadows of England’s home of football, Wembley Stadium.

Substituting the beaches of Somalia for a garden in London wasn’t always the easiest transition but as long as a football was at her feet, Roble and her siblings were happy.

“I think football was a little escape route for us because we would bring a football into school and we’d just play and play and play with the school kids,” she said, smiling.

“That way we got to learn English quicker and we made a lot of friends.”Despite her parents both being football fans, neither were particularly comfortable with their daughter pursuing any career in the sport over her academic studies.

It led Roble to practice in secret, quickly changing out of her football gear whenever she returned home from playing with her friends.