Felix Zwayer has experienced the hate on social media.
It hit him last season after he officiated the Bundesliga’s top game between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. A controversial penalty decision had caused discussion, with Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham indirectly accusing the 41-year-old of bribery, alluding to the betting scandal that hit German football in 2005.
Zwayer himself is not active on social media, but received anonymous hate mail, and according to police reports, there was even a death threat circulating online.
This is not an isolated case. Referees are increasingly becoming targets of hostility on the Internet. The possibility of open discussion is abused by often trolls, anonymous individuals who feel free to attack without restraint or consequence. As a result, the German refereeing system is struggling with a noticeable decline in recruiting young referees.
“When I started in 1994, we had around 80,000 referees in Germany. Today, there are about half that number,” Zwayer says. “How are we supposed to attract young people when there are full-on social media rants about referees every weekend without objectivity? That’s not very sexy. Young people aren’t up for that.” The inhibition threshold to become a referee has become “enormously high” due to the discussions online, Zwayer said.
Steinhaus-Webb has been the director of the women’s department at the English Football Association since 2020.
Amateur games soon without impartial referees?
For Lutz-Michael Fröhlich, former Bundesliga referee and now managing director of sports and communications at DFB Schiri, a joint DFB and DFL initiative for refereeing services in Germany, his industry has a massive image problem.
“In case of doubt, the referees are to blame. The referee is the scapegoat – that is the general perception. There is a lack of backing and appreciation for the effort and performance.”
Fröhlich calls on players and coaches to make positive comments about referees in public. What is exemplified in professional soccer finds imitators.
“What we see on Sundays in the district league or with the youth is often a mirror image of what happens in the Bundesliga.” The situation at the grassroots level is dramatic, he said. “If the downward spiral in referee numbers continues, many games in the amateur and youth sectors will soon have to take place without impartial referees.”
‘It must be possible to prosecute insults’
“The decline in referees is not exclusively a German problem,” Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb tells DW. The former referee, who in 2017 became the first female referee to officiate matches in the men’s Bundesliga, sees a trend that is at least Europe-wide.
“We have to deal with problems of young referees everywhere. It will be a big task for the associations to continue to make refereeing attractive in the future,” she added.
The 43-year-old also sees the poor image of referees, fueled by hostility on social media, as the main problem. “In England, there has been a specialist department in the Football Association since 2020 that deals with online abuse and is pushing for the introduction of new laws.”
“This commitment is quite successful and should be seen as a model for other associations,” says Steinhaus-Webb, who has been working for the English referees’ association “Professional Game Match Official Limited” (PGMOL) as director of the women’s department for more than a year.
On and off the field, referees are not given enough support.
The misery of social media
The “Online abuse” initiative seeks to identify the perpetrators behind anonymous posts on social media and hold them accountable for their defamatory posts. “It must be possible to prosecute and punish these insults. No one would accept such insults on the street, so why should identical statements be acceptable online?” asks Steinhaus-Webb, who describes action against online offenders as essential.
“There was huge development in women’s soccer in England with the 2022 Women’s European Championship. This tournament was used well to recruit young female referees. Promotions were held on the sidelines of the games, through which a significant number of new female applicants were found.
But for Fröhlich, one thing is clear: “As long as referees – whether at amateur level or in the top leagues – are constantly criticized and insulted online, it will remain difficult to inspire young people for this honorary office.”
This article was translated from German.
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