Female football fan holds up Saudi game

A 12-year-old girl managed to delay the start of Saudi's Prince Faisal Bin Fahd football tournament, local press reports said.

Tuesday's game between Al-Nahda and Al-Orouba in the eastern Al-Ehsaa region did not start on time because a young girl was spotted in the audience, Al-Watan newspaper reported.

Women are not allowed to attend public sporting events in the kingdom.

An official said the reason for the delay was that the referees were discussing what to do about the situation.

"I asked the referee to start the game since the girl's presence shouldn't interfere with that. Plus this is a purely administrative matter, and the referees have nothing to do with it," he told the paper.

Spectators said the girl stayed for around 35 minutes in the first half until officials asked her to leave. She left without a fuss.