German FA appoints first Woman to referee Bundesliga Matches

Her name is Bibiana Steinhaus, 28 years old and a self-proclaimed failed left-back which helped with the decision to pursue a refereeing career. She hasn’t entered the prime time big stage Bundesliga yet, but the second tier 2. Bundesliga is a start. It’s not the first time that she will be refereeing in a men’s football league though, since she collected a lot of experience in the third division Regionalliga Nord from 2001 to 2007. “We have observed her since then - there is no reason not to use her in professional matches,” said Volker Roth, head of the referees’ committee. Steinhaus isn’t asking for any special treatment. “I want to prove the possibilities for men and women on the job and in refereeing are equal,” she said. “There won’t be any special privileges for me.” (German figure of speech alert! Translating the last sentence 1:1 would turn out to be “There won’t be any frying of an extra sausage for me.”) Talking about her experiences in the Regionalliga so far she had the following to say: “I have negative experiences to report. I was never physically attacked, but was the target of verbal abuse.” Well, I’d say this is probably a good sign. I doubt that those fans were following any equal rights agenda, but since her male colleagues get verbal abuse from fans all the time, she got exactly the treatment she is asking for. For the physical attacks bit she will have to wait some more until she can referee on the international stage, like Euro 2008 qualifiers for example. Probably in some years from now. And perhaps the television pictures of a woman handing out a yellow card to a player who pulled of his shirt, will serve as further proof that this rule is rather ridiculous. Related trivia: Two German MPs actually campaigned against this rule some time ago.

(Sources: 1 2)

Category: 1. Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga

Tags: 2. Bundesliga, Bibiana Steinhaus, Bundesliga, Referee

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