Former top referee Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb is leaving the German Football Association (DFB) and will endeavor to improve refereeing in England in the future. The DFB announced the farewell to the 42-year-old on Monday two days after her assignment as a video assistant in the women’s final of the Olympic tournament in Tokyo between Canada and Sweden.
Steinhaus-Webb will therefore be responsible for the selection of female referees at the English Referees Association in the home country of her husband Howard Webb, also a former world-class referee.
“With the current framework conditions, women’s football in England is setting completely new standards. I am looking forward to the great opportunity to share my diverse experience as a referee with the referees in England and to support them in reaching their full potential as well as resilient structures within the association for optimal development, “explained Steinhaus-Webb. The German chief referee Lutz-Michael Fröhlich described the future post of the prominent police officer as a “new milestone in her career in football”.
However, the contact between Steinhaus-Webb and the DFB should not be completely broken off. In the course of her move, Steinhaus-Webb should make a significant contribution to an exchange between the DFB and the English FA on referee issues.
Steinhaus-Webb: Most recently, she whistled the Supercup 2020
Even before her Olympic stint in Japan, Steinhaus-Webb moved to the camp of video assistants a good year ago after finishing her active career as a referee. The seven-time referee of the year before had her last game in autumn 2020 at the Supercup between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
The Lower Saxon was the first woman to be promoted to the ranks of the Bundesliga referees in 2017 and later also played internationally in men’s games. By 2020, Steinhaus-Webb led a total of 23 matches in the German House of Lords and also led the 2012 Olympic final for women in London and between 2009 and 2019 several matches at three World Cup and three European Championship tournaments for women. Most recently, Steinhaus-Webb was also under discussion as a candidate for the vacant presidential post at the DFB.
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