German football history was made when 28-year old police officer Bibiana Steinhaus refereed the game between SC Paderborn and 1899 Hoffenheim, a match of the Second Bundesliga. Steinhaus joined the ranks in 1995, and has been promoted to the elite circle of FIFA referess since then. She had been officiating games of the Regionalliga, the 3rd division in Germany, for the last six years.
Media attention was tremendous, the sheer number of TV crews unheard of at a game of the Second Bundesliga. “That the media will watch my every move does not come unexpected”, said Steinhaus. “I just feel elated that the board of referees has given me their vote of confidence. I’ll work very hard to repay their confidence in me.” Saturday night, she will be a guest at the ZDF’s “Aktuelles Sportstudio”, one of the most popular sports shows on German television.
As a very young girl, she used to play football herself – “but without any success”, she remembers. In 1995, she followed in her father’s footsteps, who had been a football official himself: In 1999, she started to conduct games in the women’s Bundesliga, in 2001 in the men’s Regionalliga, in 2005 she became a FIFA referee.
Volker Roth, who heads the referee’s board of the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB), is full of praise for Steinhaus: “We took a real close look at her performances, and she always received great grades. Everybody should be aware that she had to perform on the men’s level.”
Bibiana Steinhaus took the field without any fears, she felt very much up to the challenge. “Really, it’s much tougher to officiate in the lower leagues. Players and referees bond much more in the upper leagues. And there are much less verbal injuries.”
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German football history was made when 28-year old police officer Bibiana Steinhaus refereed the game between SC Paderborn and 1899 Hoffenheim, a match of the Second Bundesliga. Steinhaus joined the ranks in 1995, and has been promoted to the elite circle of FIFA referess since then. She had been officiating games of the Regionalliga, the 3rd division in Germany, for the last six years.
Media attention was tremendous, the sheer number of TV crews unheard of at a game of the Second Bundesliga. “That the media will watch my every move does not come unexpected”, said Steinhaus. “I just feel elated that the board of referees has given me their vote of confidence. I’ll work very hard to repay their confidence in me.” Saturday night, she will be a guest at the ZDF’s “Aktuelles Sportstudio”, one of the most popular sports shows on German television.
As a very young girl, she used to play football herself – “but without any success”, she remembers. In 1995, she followed in her father’s footsteps, who had been a football official himself: In 1999, she started to conduct games in the women’s Bundesliga, in 2001 in the men’s Regionalliga, in 2005 she became a FIFA referee.
Volker Roth, who heads the referee’s board of the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB), is full of praise for Steinhaus: “We took a real close look at her performances, and she always received great grades. Everybody should be aware that she had to perform on the men’s level.”
Bibiana Steinhaus took the field without any fears, she felt very much up to the challenge. “Really, it’s much tougher to officiate in the lower leagues. Players and referees bond much more in the upper leagues. And there are much less verbal injuries.”
