The DFB wants to help referees in professional and amateur football with several campaigns this year. A current campaign is about the right way to deal with discrimination.
The DFB has proclaimed 2023 the “Year of the Referee”. In the course of this there was already an action in which the Bundesliga professionals Nils Petersen (SC Freiburg) and Anton Stach (Mainz 05) officiated the district league game between VfR Nierstein and TSV Mommenheim. The aim of this initiative was to stop the loss of referees and to promote more recognition.
DFB presents new instructional video
During their excursion to the whistle, Petersen and Stach were assisted by top referee Deniz Aytekin as an observer. It is now also part of a new campaign by the largest sports association in the world, it is called “Referees against discrimination”.
Together with Katrin Rafalski (referee in the women’s Bundesliga and assistant up to the 2nd division for men) and Kisanet Zekarias, who whistles as an amateur referee up to the Oberliga Südwest, Aytekin calls for stronger resistance to racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and all further forms of discrimination on and off the football pitch.
The DFB packaged this call in a seven-minute instructional video that is to be presented during the cup game between Bayern Munich and SC Freiburg on Tuesday (April 4th, 2023).
Big difference between insult and discrimination
“Football is for everyone” – with this sentence the film begins. Voiced by Aytekin, who explains: “Discrimination is not a trivial offense. There is a huge difference between insulting someone and discriminating against them.“
Discrimination is a disparagement”in relation to origin, skin color, language, religion, disability, age, gender, sexual identity. (…) On the basis of actual characteristics or characteristics attributed to them, which are inherent in their person and therefore cannot be influenced by them“.
The tone is often rough in football, insults are the order of the day. The film also makes it clear that they should be punished with red cards on the pitch – which is rarely the case. If it comes from the ranks, it doesn’t even get punished at all. In the case of discrimination, the procedure is tougher and, in addition to being sent off, there is another procedure that is laid down in a three-stage plan.
Three-stage plan can lead to termination
At the first occurrence, the referees should stop the game and order a stadium announcement. If the next form of discrimination occurs, all protagonists should leave the field and another announcement should be made. Should such an incident occur again afterwards, the game will be canceled.
For example, referee Rafalski witnessed discrimination when, in early 2020, fans of Preußen Münster racially discriminated against Würzburg professional Leroy Kwadwo. “Referees have to assess the difference between an insult and discrimination on and off the field in the shortest possible time, they have to know their competence to act and the processes involved in incidents of discrimination” said Rafalski.
Notes in the game report
The Referees are asked to record such occurrences in their game reports. The processes should be described in as much detail as possible so that the sports court can adequately assess the situation. For the after that there are contact points at the state associations.
“Football takes place in our society. Diversity is a strength of football, in the Bundesliga stadiums as well as on amateur pitches across the country.”says Aytekin.
“At the same time, however, there are also challenges such as prejudice, exclusion and sometimes even hatred and violence. It is particularly important to me that we, as referees, take decisive action against discrimination, regardless of the league.“
Low number of documented cases
But there is still a need to catch up. Since 2014, referees have been able to fill out online match reports. In more than 1.2 million cases, 5,582 incidents were noted last season, of which 3,544 were due to violence and 2,389 to discrimination. 2021/22 was the previous record season in a negative sense, 911 games had to be interrupted due to violent and discriminatory crimes.
While such incidents are rare in professional football, amateur football sees acts of this nature every weekend. Oberliga referee Zekarias is therefore hoping for an effect from the DFB campaign: “Racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination – we can stop this in football now.“