Yigal Frid

Frid was born in February 1992 in Israel, the son of Leonid, a mechanical engineer, and Tanya, a food engineer, who had moved to Israel from the Soviet Union one year earlier just after the collapse of the USSR.^[2] Before deciding to pursue a career as a referee, Frid played football for the youth team of Hapoel Kfar Saba F.C. At the age of 16, he quit playing and became focused on being a referee.^[2]

Frid refereed his first match in the Israeli Premier League in 2015 in the game between Maccabi Netanya F.C. and Bnei Sakhnin F.C.^[2] In July 2018, he debuted in European leagues at a qualifying match of the UEFA Europa League between Lech Poznań and FC Gandzasar Kapan.^[3] Other prominent continental and national games for Frid were the 2021 Trophée des Champions between Lille OSC and Paris Saint-Germain FC at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv and the 2023 Israel Super Cup between Maccabi Haifa F.C. and Beitar Jerusalem F.C.^[4][2]

In March 2021, Frid oversaw his first international match in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers between Northern Ireland and Bulgaria in Belfast.^[5] Another game he led in the same qualification tournament was a match between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kazakhstan.^[2] In the qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Frid has refereed several matches, including a 10–0 victory of Austria over San Marino at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna.^[6]

Frid has a bachelor's degree in computer science and has two children, a girl and a boy, with his wife Shir, who works as an economist.^[2]