Bibiana Steinhaus announced on Wednesday that she will whistle her last match later in the evening. The top female referee is in charge of the game for the German Super Cup between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
On the website of the DFB, the 41-year-old Steinhaus only wants to give a brief explanation of her sudden departure. “Like many people, I thought about a number of things during the corona time,” said the referee.
“After a very constructive conversation with refereeing chief Lutz Michael Fröhlich and after carefully weighing many factors, I have decided to end my national and international career as a referee,” said Steinhaus.
She became the first female referee in the Bundesliga in 2017 and has since led 23 matches at the highest level in Germany. In 2011 she led the final of the World Cup for women in Germany between the United States and Japan (Japan won after penalties) and a year later she whistled the Olympic final between the same teams in London (2-1 win US).
The duel for the German Super Cup between Bayern and Dortmund in the Allianz Arena starts on Wednesday evening at 8.30 p.m. “I hope all the attention will be on the game tonight and not on me,” said Steinhaus. “I will go into more detail about the reasons for my farewell in due course.”
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