IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 40
Picture : the end of the career of Bibiana Steinhaus and the Best European Player Award of the Year for Robert Lewandowski.
BIBIANA STEINHAUS (4 IFFHS AWARDS) ANNOUNCED HER RETIREMENT
Bibiana Steinhaus, the first female Bundesliga referee in league history ,ended her career after officiating the DFL Supercup between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
She'll gladly talk about football, maybe even wrong decisions. But the gender debate never appealed to her.
"At the end of the day, it's the performance that counts," "And the person who has the best performance should be allowed to be on the pitch, regardless of gender, hair color or religion. That's all that counts."
Steinhaus, 41, is a police officer and a football referee. Since she stepped into the public sphere, she knows she is often confronted with the topic she doesn't like.
After her debut in the Bundesliga, the mass circulation Bild newspaper printed the headline "Bibi is the Best," !
"In general, I don't like headlines about the refereeing because it means that you were the focus of the game, and that is definitely not good," she said of the headline.
"I like the headlines when they are about performance, less so when it's about being a woman in this job because I do it just like everyone else."
She became the first female referee to officiate a German Supercup game when treble winners Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 on Wednesday. She first became a certified referee in Germany in 1999, and she became a FIFA referee for international competitions in 2005.
Steinhaus once told how much pressure she felt before her first Bundesliga game between Hertha Berlin and Werder Bremen in 2017.
"I was lying with our physiotherapist in the catacombs and breathing under guidance," Steinhaus said. When she walked on the pitch, she knew: "Nothing bad can happen. It will be okay. And that was it."
Since this first match, she whistled 23 other Bundesliga games over the 3 past seasons.
Her professional experience as a police officer helped her on the pitch.
"We don't make the rules, but we have to enforce and ensure people behave accordingly. Sometimes it takes a while to earn people's respect. In the end, it's the police or the referee who makes the decision. Eventually people understand who is making the calls."
Bibiana Steinhaus ,the referee, has been named THE WORLD’S BEST WOMAN REFEREE by IFFHS 4 times , Germany's "Referee of the year" six times and refereed during the Women's World Cup and Women's Euros three times each.
The DFB annonced on Wednesday that Wednesday's German Supercup would be her last game. The decision was made for personal reasons. She's been in a relationship with the English former FIFA referee Howard Webb, who lives in New York. It would be typical for her not to make a big deal about her retirement, either. A great personnality retired !
UEFA CROWNED THE PLAYERS OF THE SEASON
Last week, the UEFA crowned the best players of the season in Geneva, Switzerland. Pernille Harder and Robert Lewandowski became the BEST PLAYER AWARDS for their performances in the UEFA Champions League season. The winners of the 2020 Awards were Olympique Lyon, the World’s Best Club since a long time (7 IFFHS Awards !) and FC Bayern München, the great Winner of 2020 (1 IFFHS Award 2013) ! Lyon won 4 Awards and Bayern 5 Awards, on a total of 6 !
Here is the full list of UEFA award winners:
- President's Award: Didier Drogba
- Women's Goalkeeper of the Season: Sarah Bouhaddi (Lyon)
- Women's Defender of the Season: Wendie Renard (Lyon)
- Women's Midfielder of the Season: Dzsenifer Marozsan (Lyon)
- Women's Forward of the Season: Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg)
- Women's Coach of the Year: Jean-Luc Vasseur (Lyon)
- Women's Footballer of the Year: Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg)
- Men's Goalkeeper of the Season: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)
- Men's Defender of the Season: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
- Men's Midfielder of the Season: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
- Men's Forward of the Season: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
- Men's Coach of the Year: Hansi Flick (Bayern Munich)
- Men's Footballer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
CURIOSITIES
- Pep Guardiola has managed 686 games as coach before to lost a match with 5 goals conceded ! It was before 8 days in Manchester against the Premier League leader FC Leicester (2-5) !
46 YEARS AGO
On 2 October, 1974, Nigeria flag bearers in the African Cup of Champions Clubs, Bendel Insurance flattened Secteur 7 of Niger Republic 7-0 in the first leg, first round tie, thus registering the 7-goal margin for the first time ever in the history of the competition. Although CARA, Brazzaville of the People’s Republic of Congo prevailed in the final game that year, defeating Ghazi El Mahalla of Egypt 4-2, the Nigerian achievement was the talk of the tournament which was in its tenth edition that year.
Cara Brazzaville 1974
Bendel Insurance of Benin City kept that record in tact for thirteen years until it was rivaled by Canon Yaounde of Cameroon, who, on 22 March, 1987 devastated Beninese side, Requins de l’Athlantique(Atlantic Sharks) 7-0 at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde. Canon’s François Omam Biyick, the same man who would score the lone goal in Cameroon’s World Cup showdown with Argentina three years later, made history when he hit a brace twice against the Sharks in Yaounde.
In a related story, the first 7-goal margin in the African Cup Winners Cup whose pioneer edition was won by Cameroon’s Tonnerre Kalara Club of Yaounde by defeating Stella FC of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, 4-1, was registered by ASF Police of Senegal, who trounced Anges ABC of Gabon by 8-1 in their second leg, second round tie. The match was played in Libreville on 4 May, 1977* after a 0-0 first leg score in Dakar.