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Bibiana Steinhaus on threats from the DFB and male attacks

You are one of the best-known faces of the “Football can do more” initiative, which nine women from the football business launched last week. They not only demand new structures and binding quotas, but also essentially a new culture in the football business, not least in the DFB. What feedback did you get?

After we have formulated our demands out loud, we are met with incredibly broad support. Like us, she comes from a wide variety of areas in the football business and society. People far beyond football feel that the time is ripe for more diversity. We also received feedback from politics, for example Malu Dreyer, the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, publicly supported our position paper, as did the Lower Saxony Interior and Sports Minister Boris Pistorius. This feedback strengthens us, gives us and our initiative strength. We are convinced that we are on the right track.

Clear line on the field: Bibiana Steinhaus as referee 2020


Clear line on the field: Bibiana Steinhaus as referee 2020
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Bild: AP

Why did you take part in this initiative, why are you demanding fundamental changes with your experience as a referee?

It is extraordinary that nine women from such different areas of football, who would not necessarily sit in the stands in good harmony, have come together anyway. What unites us is that we have taken the support and recognition of women in the professional field of football into focus. This is a matter of personal concern to all of us. For example, we have Jana Bernhard on board, the managing director of “S20 – The Sponsors’ Voice”, the association of the most well-known sponsors in Germany. These days it is becoming very clear that companies that are active in sports sponsorship are also very interested in promoting and promoting diversity. Everywhere in football there is a lot of catching up to do when it comes to the rights and representation of women. With Almuth Schult we have a goalkeeper from a Bundesliga club who recently became a mother and who has to answer the question: Does motherhood and competitive sport go together – how can that work in football, in club sport and in the national team? What framework conditions have to be created for this? We have Gaby Papenburg with us, who is running for the presidency of the Berlin Football Association. She is there, to put it carefully, as a woman confronted with special challenges. Or the ZDF commentator Claudia Neumann, who, as a female voice in football, especially when she commented on international games, has known to have received misogynistic feedback. These are all experiences that drive us to ensure more justice in football.

And what personal experiences drive you as the first female Bundesliga referee?

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