The Al-Shabab and Ittihad Jeddah match referee forced two players from the latter, Mohamed Nour and Mesfer Al-Qahtani, to cut their hair in accordance with a Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) law in the Saudi League. SAFF have passed on a decree earlier that prohibited players from doing out-of-the-ordinary haircuts, thus maintaining their appearance in the field and abide by Islamic teachings, according to their point of view. The referee refused to allow the duo to enter the field until they cut their hair evenly, which forced the players to get haircuts from Ittihad officials and reserve players and joined their teammates 10 minutes after the start of the match.