Fighting her way up in a man’s world
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AFTER a decade in Germany’s second division, Bibiana Steinhaus will make Bundesliga history this season by becoming the first woman to referee in the country’s top flight.
The 38-year-old police officer is among four referees to have been promoted by the German football federation into the league’s elite group of 24.
“For every referee, whether man or woman, the dream is to be able to referee in the Bundesliga. I worked very hard toward that goal and had some setbacks over the past few years, so I’m very happy about the referees’ commission’s confidence,” Steinhaus said when her promotion was announced in May. “It shows that the performance-principle also applies in the field of referees.”
The daughter of a referee, she began by officiating women’s games for the DFB in 1999. Steinhaus then became a FIFA referee in 2005 and earned her place in the second division in 2007, as the first female referee in German professional football, before securing her latest promotion.
Steinhaus has handled women’s World Cups and European Championships, along with the gold medal match between the United States and Japan at the 2012 Olympics in London. Last June, she took charge of the women’s Champions League final between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain.
Of her 80 matches in Germany’s second tier, all but one went off without a hitch for Steinhaus.
After sending off Kerem Demirbay in 2015, the then-Fortuna Duesseldorf midfielder reportedly told her:
“Women have no place in men’s football.”
Demirbay was handed a three-game ban with two further games suspended. Desseldorf also made Demirbay referee a girls’ game to ensure he understood the message. Demirbay apologized publicly and to Steinhaus directly.
Steinhaus is already aware that she may be treated differently to other referees. During Bayern Munich’s game against Chemnitzer FC in the German Cup recently, she had one of her bootlaces untied by Bayern winger Franck Ribery as he pretended to put the ball in place for a free kick.
She laughed it off, giving Ribery a couple of playful punches, but it is debatable whether the France winger would have untied the bootlace if he had been dealing with a man.
“She laughed, that’s positive,” Ribery said. “It was a joke, but you always have to respect each other.”
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