Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.01.2018, Blaðsíða 14

7000 km Offside

Iraqi asylum seeker referees Icelandic football matches
Words: Grieg Robertson Photo: Timothée Lambrecq
Twana Khaled, a 28-year-old for-
mer Iraqi Premier League referee,
is now stewarding matches in Ice-
land while his appeal to a rejected
asylum application is being pro-
cessed. After discussing his career
history and aspirations with fam-
ily doctor, Tekla Petursdóttir, who
also liaises with social services,
Twana was put in touch with Gun-
nar Jarl Jónsson, a retired Icelandic
referee, who has since arranged
matches for the asylum seeker
to officiate. Now training with
KSÍ referees, Twana’s ambition
is to return to top-level football
in Iceland, on a permanent basis.
Worth the cold
Hailing from Erbil, the largest city
in the Kurdistan region of north-
ern Iraq, Twana spent 18 months
in a German refugee camp from
January 2016 to March 2017, but en-
countered difficulties in applying
for asylum there and eventually
wound up in Iceland via Denmark
in June. Now, after being here for
six months, Twana hopes he can
settle down with his family. “Ice-
land is one of the best countries
for women and children,” he says.
Though a world away from Iraq,
where summer temperatures can
reach higher than 40°C, it is the
prospect of good social provisions
that make the cold worthwhile.
In terms of football, Twana
remains proud of his roots and
supports his hometown club Er-
bil SC, who were
runners-up in
the Asian equiv-
alent of the Eu-
ropa League in
2012 and 2014.
“Some years ago,
Iraqi football
was not so good,
but now they
can buy good
players from
Africa, Europe
and Brazil. They have so many
Brazilian players,” Twana chuck-
les. Although this might indicate
the Iraqi league’s superiority to
Úrvalsdeild karla, Iceland’s top
division, he also recognises the
prowess of strákarnir okkar. “I
think Iceland is the better national
team,” Twana happily concedes.
Whistle and card
Since Twana cannot yet receive a
work permit, he is currently refer-
eeing on a voluntary basis, but has
high hopes for the future. “When I
was in Iraq, there were 37 million
people and I refereed in the top
league, so here I can do the same,”
he says confidently. This kind of re-
solve and determination will sure-
ly be key for his family, given that
they are surviving on 10,000 ISK
per-week and 5,000 ISK per child.
With sev-
eral games al-
ready under his
belt, including
one between the
U-20 squads of
Reykjavík based
teams Fjölnir
and KR, Twana
has sharpened
up his fitness,
but feels like he’s
some way off
from competing with his Icelandic
counterparts. “I haven’t trained for
eight months,” he admits, shak-
ing his head. On the positive side,
since Twana is in the preliminary
stages of learning Icelandic, he
cannot yet understand the back-
chat of players and has to let his
whistle and card do the talking.
Doing what he loves is clearly
important to Twana and the rec-
ommendations he has received
can only help his case. He has al-
ready felt the warmth of the Ice-
landic community since his arrival
and hopes for similarly empathetic
treatment from the State. “I want
to say thanks to Gunnar, Tekla and
Magnús Jóns, the head of refereeing
in Iceland,” he adds, gratefully.
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01 — 2018
Play nice with Twana Khaled, or he might show you the red card
“When I was in
Iraq, there were
37 million people
and I refereed in
the top league,
so here I can do
the same.”
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