Bibiana Steinhaus
Born: 24 March 1979 in Bad Lauterberg (Germany)
Nationality: German
Height: 1 81m
Weight: 73kg
Profession: Police officer
Sporting career: Footballer with SV Bad Lauterberg and the Niedersachsen police team. Since 1995: Referee. Since 1999: German football association referee (women’s league, men’s fourth division). Since 2001: Men’s third division. Since 2007: Men’s second division. Sporting highlights: Referee for the German Women’s Cup final in 2003. Personal honours: DFB female referee of the year 2007 and 2008. Steinhaus has refereed 62 matches in the men’s third division and seven in the second division.

Bibiana Steinhaus is the boss
A female referee who last year became the first woman to officiate in division two of the men’s league is attracting praise in Germany. Bibiana Steinhaus is the woman who could soon be refereeing first division matches.
Cameron Diaz and Cindy Crawford have already been on. So have Lionel Ritchie and Anna Netrebko. Oliver Kahn, too. A constant stream of international stars at the top of their game have taken a seat on German TV show host Thomas Gottschalk’s couch. When the producers of the show Wetten, dass… ? [Want to bet?] call, no one turns them down. Regular viewing figures of more than 10 million are a powerful incentive.
Last autumn, Bibiana Steinhaus was also invited to appear on the most successful Saturday night show in the German-speaking world. But she declined. Because, after all, what did she have to boast about compared to the stars that regularly appear on Gottschalk’s show? She had only refereed a second division match.
But the Paderborn-Hoffenheim match, a seemingly unremarkable fixture, caused quite a stir in Germany on that balmy evening of 21 September. Because Steinhaus was the first women to officiate a professional match for the German football association (DFB). The match was attended by representatives of lifestyle magazines, who rarely show an interest in sport, as well as radio and television reporters. The interview marathon that began after the final whistle at 19.45h lasted until almost midnight, and the next day there followed a live appearance on das aktuelle Sportstudio, the mother of all sports talk shows on German television.
FULL OF PRAISE
Steinhaus turned down the endorsement deal she was offered by a jam manufacturer shortly afterwards. The 29-year-old finds the hype surrounding her rather amusing and knows that a degree of publicity is part and parcel of being a successful referee these days. But she does set boundaries, because as the only woman in a male-dominated profession she has a special status, even if the public hype has died down somewhat by now. She also knows that for those who judge her and her career as a referee, only her performance matters.
The German football association’s head of refereeing, Volker Roth, who has since offered Steinhaus more challenging assignments than her introductory match, is positive about her performance after seven games in the second division: “She has earned great respect.” This explains why the police officer from Hanover was recently selected, along with Christine Beck, as female referee of the year.
Roth’s views are also supported by statements from footballers. “Her refereeing was very good, there was absolutely nothing to object to,” says national team player Patrick Helmes, for example, who played with Cologne last season and is now a striker for Bayer Leverkusen.
Thorsten Judt goes even further: “I have no doubt that she could also referee in the first division; up to now she has received positive reactions from all quarters. I would have nothing against more women refereeing if their performance is up to standard.” The captain of recently relegated Kickers Offenbach explains what sets her apart as a referee: “She has a pleasant manner, she’s not so dogged and is always up for a little fun. As players, we try to behave better than we would towards a man, at least to be more polite, not so brash.”
PREVENTIVE ACTION
Bibiana Steinhaus has good conflict management skills on the pitch. She deploys her personality and her feminine wiles. At 1.81m she is at eye level with most professional players and she is just as likely to smile mischievously as she is to train her sparkling blue eyes on an offending player. The fact that with her sandy blonde hair most of the players consider her good-looking surely does not hurt. And she knows what makes footballers tick. “I try to take preventive action. If someone has just scored a great goal, then I know that he might run to the fence to celebrate, and I try to prevent him from doing so,” explains the keen long-distance runner, who as a consequence usually does not have to issue too many cards.
Will all this be enough for her to become the first woman to referee in Germany’s first division before long? Roth refuses to be drawn, but repeats: “There are neither advantages nor disadvantages because she is a woman. She is judged in exactly the same way as her male colleagues.”
People will be curious to see whether the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011™, to be organised by the German football association, will have any influence on her career. As a self-confessed supporter of women’s football, the president of the German football association, Theo Zwanziger, campaigned strongly to host the championship. Along with a strong national team, having a female referee in the men’s first division, which is common practice in other countries, would, of course, be a very welcome development.
And once Bibiana Steinhaus has celebrated her debut in the Bundesliga she surely will not turn down Thomas Gottschalk again. Want to bet?

A cooperation agreement between 2008 World Cup hosts New Zealand (U-17) and Chile (U-20) has set a new benchmark on how associations can work together not only for the good of their events, but for the game in general.
The idea to formalise the relationship between the two countries was essentially a natural progression of the two member associations working closely together on their respective events under the guidance of FIFA. After the rather disappointing attendance figures at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Russia, FIFA’s Development Division joined hands with the Competitions Division and the two LOCs in a different approach to women’s competitions. The new legacy philosophy: unlike with the FIFA World Cup™, which sells itself, world football’s governing body agreed that it needed first to organise, sell and promote women’s football in addition to running a first-class tournament – and it was clear that FIFA needed to be innovative and look at new methods such as cooperation agreements, mayoral visits, special media initiatives, ambassador programmes and a series of development activities in order to get media, fans, the commercial sector and other partners on board. Then and only then could FIFA have in women’s football what it already has in the men’s game.
The idea was therefore for the two host countries, Chile and New Zealand, to test the new concept and at the same time engage in a mutual learning process. It was clear that both associations would benefit significantly by working in tandem to share their experiences, knowledge and expertise. New Zealand has a strong women’s football base but is a country dominated by rugby. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Chile is a football country, yet the participation of women in football and sport in general is very low. FIFA hopes that as a result of this sharing of information and the new legacy-focused approach in general, the tournaments will benefit and that a positive long-term impact for women’s football will be felt well after the events themselves have been and gone.
A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY
Harold Mayne-Nicholls, President of the Chilean football association and of the LOC of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Chile 2008, agrees with FIFA’s sentiments. “In terms of a legacy, our great goal is to involve the girls of our country in football to give them a chance to be part of our wonderful game. In Chile, 9 out of 10 girls are sedentary. We need to change that and football can provide the impetus. We also hope that the other countries in South America will follow our example. FIFA is ready to provide support in this regard, as they have with our association. I am sure, therefore, that if each country has good plans and programmes, they will receive this assistance in order to copy what we have done. And that will be great for the whole continent. In the context of providing a legacy for Chile, certainly the highlight for me so far has been the way our population has gotten behind our initiatives for women’s football. We organised the [South American] qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and we were expecting around 1,000 people to turn up. Instead we had crowds of 5,000 to 8,000. Plus the TV ratings were very good. We gave everyone a fantastic opportunity to be part of this new game for girls.”
Mayne-Nicholls was one of the signatories of the cooperation agreement between New Zealand and Chile that was signed in the presence of FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter in October 2007. With the document describing key initiatives such as regular sharing of information and expertise, not only around the World Cup events but around football in general, as well as fixtures at all levels, cultural exchanges and scholarship programmes, Blatter described the document as “groundbreaking” and one that captured the true essence of the football family.
“There is so much goodwill between the two parties,” highlights New Zealand LOC President John Morris. “So while many documents such as this one are signed and then just put in the drawer and forgotten, I do not think that will be the case here. Already our U-20 women’s team will be travelling to Chile in September to play as part of the preparation programme for their World Cup at the end of the year.”
POSITIVE EFFECTS
There are another eight reasons why there is little chance that the cooperation agreement will sit in a drawer and gather dust. At a meeting held directly prior to the U-17 World Cup draw in Wellington on 4 June, die mayors of four New Zealand host cities (Andrew Williams, North Shore City, Auckland; Bob Simcock, Hamilton (represented by Councillor Daphne Bell); Kerry Prendergast, Wellington; and Bob Parker, Christchurch) and their four counterparts from the Chilean host cities (Pablo Zalaquett, La Florida; Oscar Pereira, Coquimbo; Francisco Huenchumilla, Temuco; and Aldo Bernucci, Chilian) signed a communique to pledge their support to the initial cooperation agreement.
In relation to being a signatory to the document, Andrew Williams said, “Sport is a great way to open doors and bring people and countries together. Football is huge in Chile and therefore a great way for us to increase our links to South America. The agreement itself had a lot of excellent principles. It is good for sport and will benefit people in both countries. Also the involvement of FIFA in helping bring the document together underlines its strength and the opportunity to build on the agreement in the future. In terms of meeting our colleagues from Chile, the mayors were really a great bunch of guys. It was really interesting to hear how they conducted their municipal business and to learn how they undertake their projects. I was particularly impressed that they have been able to build four new stadiums for 120 million US dollars as a result of the tournament. They were very interesting and innovative leaders.”
Attending the U-17 World Cup draw in New Zealand and working with the local mayors was also an engaging experience for the Chileans, as Pablo Zalaquett pointed out. “It was much more than I expected in every way – from how we were taken care of, to the beauty of the cities we visited (Auckland and Wellington), to the standard of the stadiums and facilities,” he said. “I also learned about die importance of the mayors and their role in the tournament and the development of women’s football in general. It is crucial to involve the city and its citizens, and for host cities to work together with central government and the association. The World Cup is a combined effort – not just by one of us.”
In the case of Chile and New Zealand, the combined efforts will be doubled as the two World Cup events draw nearer. With the support generated by the mayoral exchange and other legacy programme initiatives such as the attendance of a New Zealand delegation at the regional FIFA Corn-Unity courses in Chile, FIFA has most definitely increased the likelihood of two fantastic events and long-lasting positive effects for women’s football in both countries.

The Sahel is an inhospitable strip of land stretching nearly 4,000 kilometres from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to sprawling Sudan and the Red Sea,
It is home to many good footballers but also to a lot of problems.
When Senegal’s Lions of Teranga cut down World Champions France and roared all the way to the last eight of the 2002 FIFA World Cup1″, many assumed they had come out of nowhere. In fact, the Senegalese were merely the finest practitioners of a footballing renaissance occurring on the unforgiving plains of the Sahel, a region perched perilously on the windswept and ever-advancing edges of the mighty Sahara Desert in North Africa.
Taking its name from the Arabic sahil, meaning shore, the Sahel is an inhospitable strip of land stretching nearly 4,000 kilometres from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to sprawling Sudan and the Red Sea. It separates the relative prosperities of the Maghreb to the North from the Gold Coast and great plains to the south and contains such romantic remnants of the past as Timbuktu and Bobo-Dioulasso. It is a place where cultures, religions and languages come together.
It is also one of the most environmentally damaged and impoverished places on earth. “Countries in the Sahel suffer from deep financial troubles, which naturally hamper their football development,” explains Abdel Moneim Hussein of Sudan and the Football Development Director for the African football confederation (CAF). “Sport can’t be a priority for the governments. How can they consistently produce young talents when the infrastructure is so poor?”
WHEN THE LIONS ROAR
And yet the Sahelian countries can claim a fine history in the game. And if their recent progress is anything to go by, they may have a rich future too.
Twelve years after Cameroon, whose arid northern corner crosses into the Sahel belt, made history by becoming the first African team to reach the quarter-final of a FIFA World Cup™, Senegal arrived in Korea and Japan with big ambitions after finishing a best-ever second in the Africa Nations Cup earlier that year.
And, almost as if planned to maximise dramatic effect, the first game of their first FIFA World Cup™ – also a first for any predominantly Sahelian nation -became the stuff of legend. An inspired and deserved 1-0 victory over holders and former colonisers France was made doubly poignant by the presence of Senegal-born Patrick Vieira at the heart of Les Bleus midfield. It sent shockwaves not only through the football world but the entire region, and all of Africa, as well.
“Some teams didn’t respect us. They thought we were nobodies, and they didn’t want to play against us or show us any respect,” said Khalilou Fadiga, who went on to play for Inter Milan and now turns out for Belgian club Antwerp. President Abdoulaye Wade declared a national holiday after the win sparked an eruption of joy and chaos in the streets of Dakar, Senegal’s capital.
It seemed that Senegalese wizards like El Hadji Diouf Salif Diao and Khalilou Fadiga had emerged from the dust to become household names. However, these budding stars were standing on the shoulders of a Sahelian giant.
WHEN KEITA WAS KING
One man who could not contain his emotions on that fateful day of 31 May 2002 was Salif Keita, currently President of Mali’s football association. “The pride we felt in this part of Africa on that day was enormous,” said Keita, revered in Mali and the Sahel in the same way as Roger Milla in Cameroon. “For an African team to beat France, the reigning world and European champions, was such a special thing.”
The son of a truck driver, Keita made his playing debut at 16 for capital club Real Bamako, the same year he took his bow for the Mali national team. Amassing 14 goals in eight games for his club in 1966, the man known as “Domingo” and “the Bamako gazelle” quickly got noticed on the continent and beyond.
“The Malian government put a lot of money and effort into sport back then,” Keita explained. “It was a matter of national pride and as a result, unlike other countries in the region, it was impossible for Mali’s best players to go unnoticed.”
The jet-heeled striker was soon picked out by legendary French outfit Saint-Etienne, and he joined the club in 1967. In what was an inauspicious beginning to his European journey, no one was there to meet Keita when he arrived at the airport in Paris, and he was forced to take a taxi to the club’s home base over 500 kilometres south of the capital. Saint-Etienne paid the fare when he finally arrived, and Keita repaid them with goals in his first two matches.
The move from Africa to the riches of European club football is of course a common one these days, but Keita’s experience was a difficult ordeal, complete with small-minded taunting. “It was difficult to adapt, but I had to,” said the man who helped the club to four consecutive French titles and Mali to a Nations Cup final in 1972.
After five years with Saint-Etienne, Keita, who was named the first African Footballer of the Year in 1970, went on to play for Marseilles, Valencia in Spain and Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.
With his playing days over, he was elected President of the Malian FA (in 2005) and currently runs one of the most respected football academies in West Africa. Amid a sea of money-hungry unlicensed football schools, the Salif Keita Centre is a beacon of light in Bamako, producing current stars of world football such as Barcelona’s Seydou Keita, a nephew of Salif s, and Real Madrid’s foraging midfielder Mahamadou Diarra.
YOUTH TO THE FORE
While Mali has a relatively rich history to draw upon, and a new golden generation emerging for Les Aigles (The Eagles), neighbours Burkina Faso and Gambia — the smallest country on the African mainland – are starting out almost from scratch with a focus on developing young talent.
Both nations have made recent appearances in FIFA youth competitions, with Burkina Faso sending a side to the knockout stages of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in 2003. The Gambians went to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru, where they beat a Marcelo-led Brazil, and the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada last year, where they reached the second round.
“Gambia are putting great effort into scouring the countryside and finding new talent.” said renowned youth coach Peter Bonu Johnson. who held the reins of the senior team briefly this vear. “A lot of the boys from those youth teams are now pushing their way into the senior side. This is the right kind of development.”
Ousmane Jallow (Al Am, UAE) and Abdoulie Mansally and Sainey Nyassi (both with New England Revolution, USA), have all made the jump to the senior team, with a good number more in Austria, Denmark and Norway. In Burkina Faso, recent youth standouts like Saidou Panandetiguiri of Belgium’s Lokeren, Egypt-based goalkeeper Daouda Diakite and French side Grenoble’s Amadou Coulibaly are making a mark. Similar projects are also taking hold, albeit slowly, in Mauritania, Chad, Niger and Sudan.
SUDAN’S PROBLEMS
While West Africa’s Sahelian representatives have experienced encouraging progress, the farther east you travel on the arid belt, the more problems emerge. Chad, who have never qualified for a continental final competition, were suspended by FIFA in late March of this year for government interference in their FA, but have since had the suspension lifted after steps were taken to remedy the irregularities. Just a few months later, increasing tensions on Chad’s eastern border forced FIFA to suspend their 2010 FIFA World Cup™’ qualifier against 1970 African champions and founding members of CAF, Sudan, who have their own set of problems at present.
“We, and all countries in the Sahel region, need to become more consistent in order to become regular powers in Africa, and beyond,” explains Abdel Moneim Hussein, knowing full well that the- world’s focus on his country revolves around the ever-deepening crisis in Darfur and the escalating conflict with Chad.
“I believe that in the Sahelian countries there need to be more clearly defined national football infrastructures,” echoes Malian Mohamed Magassouba, who led the Congo DR national team for years and is considered one of Mali’s top coaches, having been short-listed for the national team job before the FA decided on Stephen Keshi. He currently coaches Stade Malien, who have won the first division three years on the trot.
Keita also agrees: “We’re still some way behind the countries from North Africa. Our professionalism needs improvement and we need to become stronger from year to year.”
REASON TO BELIEVE
Despite a dizzying array of problems and obstacles, the Sahel can be proud of its achievements in football. This year Mali claimed its first African Footballer of the Year since Keita in Sevilla’s Frederick Kanoute, who helped the Eagles reach the last Cup of Nations and finished third-top scorer in Spain’s La Liga in 2006/2007.
With the next FIFA World Cup™ being hosted on the continent, in South Africa in 2010, and a record six African participants taking part, even more Sahelian nations are dreaming of replicating Senegal’s 2002 success. Will it be the traditional nearly-men from Mali or Gambia, or maybe even the “Honest Men” of Burkina Faso, who recently beat Tunisia and have a stranglehold on their first qualifying group?
But, do not count out the region’s standard-bearers, Senegal. Even after a disappointing 2-2 draw in qualifying with Liberia in mid-June that typifies their struggles, controversial striker El Hadji Diouf had this to say for their chances moving forward: “I don’t agree with those who think that our recent problems will stop progress to the World Cup and us making an impact in 2010.”