The DFB (German federation) has listed Bibi Steinhaus on next season's (2017-2018) Bundesliga list of referees. The first female to referee in a major top flight league? http://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/B...-bundesliga-s-first-female-referee-444644.jsp
Congrats to her on a well deserved nomination. Hopefully she'll inspire more girls to become referees.
At thirty-eight, the chances are pretty slim, but could we possibly see her at the Men's World Cup in the future? Or maybe the UCL would be more plausible? That would bring her exposure to even more young women and girls. She will be refereeing the Women's Champions League Final between Lyon and PSG in Cardiff on 1 June. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/3...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Well depends how you define "major." USSF FIFA women worked MLS in the late 1990s. In one of the major European leagues? Yes, it's a first if she gets whistles. The chances are nil, unless the selection process really changes with VAR and then the expansion to 48 teams. But still probably nil. And definitely nil that she'd have a whistle. There's a very good chance you'll see her on a German crew next year in European competition as an AAR. Brych, Aytekin, Zwayer, Grafe and possibly others will all lead crews. AARs are FIFA- or national-listed from the same federation. So unless UEFA feels she's too needed on women's UCL matches to get cross-assigned into the men's UCL or EL, it will happen because she's part of a finite pool of German referees that the DFB can nominate now. It won't be unprecedented, though. Nelly Viennot, a French AR, regularly worked the UCL last decade including, I believe, in knockout matches. She was also on the shortlist to go to WC2006, but failed fitness at one of the final seminars. She's the closet a woman has ever come to making it to a men's World Cup.
Claudia umpierrez has been officiating Primera matches in Uruguay for at least a year or so. https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Umpiérrez#La_primera_.C3.A1rbitra_profesional_de_Uruguay Or in English: http://remezcla.com/features/sports/claudia-umpierrez-profile/
And... In Venezuela, Emikar Caldera and Yersinia Correa have been refereeing first division matches for three years. And Virginia Tovar refereed in liga MX in 2004.
She just had the Women's Champions League final this year. First time since 2007 that there's no German team in the final. Back then the final was still two-legged - Christine Beck and Nicole Petignat were in charge.
Her first match for the new club season is a fairly high profile one: German Cup first round tie on Sunday, Bayern Munich away to third division Chemnitzer FC. Fist time she will center a Bayern match.
Of course I'm a bit biased, but having her as CR for a club like Bayern is a massive step forward. Bayern are certainly a top 5 World Wide club and even a German Cup is a big match for any ref when they are playing. I expect her to do a great job and hopefully move on to bigger and better things.
It seems very odd to me that there is a thread devoted to following the games and career of just one referee. Perhaps we should have individual threads for other referees, or merge this one into "Bundesliga refereeing" or something along those lines. Do we even have threads for leagues other than MLS and EPL? PH
If you don't understand the significance of what this particular ref is doing, and why it deserves its own thread, well, I don't know what to tell ya.
Meh, I'm kind of with Pierre Head here. I totally get announcing she made the Bundesliga list and then the initial discussion we had about other female referees who have been involved in top men's competitions worldwide. But following her every game, if that's what this thread becomes, seems out of place to me. The dedicated extra attention, in fact, seems to implicitly reinforce the belief that she is different from the other referees and and potentially out of place. She did a cup match this weekend between Bayern and a third division team. I could be wrong, but I actually think she's done cup matches involving first division teams in the past, so this really isn't a big deal. That said, I'm not offended by the discussion and don't have a problem if people are really interested in following her in this way. I just see the other side of the coin and tend to personally lean in that direction.
This was my intention in starting the thread. Thought there was already a thread on just her but there wasn't. And then when I saw her name listed for the Bayern match I thought I'd make note of it. But I wasn't planning on every appointment. In hindsight, I should have started a general Bundesliga thread.
The two are not connected. I do understand the significance of her success (although as MR points out other people mentioned other female referees working in top leagues in other countries so she is not unique in that regard), but it still does not deserve a dedicated thread. Not to take anything away from her Bundesliga work, I notice she did not get a semifinal whistle let alone the final (only a 4th in both cases) in the recent Euro Women's Tournament and Germany had been eliminated, so there are other female referees in Europe who seem to be higher rated anyway. So maybe you can come up with something to tell me after all, (but on 2nd thoughts probably not!). PH
I started a general Bundesliga thread here: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/bundesliga-17-18-assignments-and-discussion-rs.2067837/