Fabienne Michel: fans vote for sexist chants against them

Fans of Rot-Weiß Essen laid out sexist speakers against the DFB referee Fabienne Michel in a game last weekend. During the game at SC Verl Verl, according to a report by the “Sportschau”, they initially chanted “whore, whore”. In the course of the 90 minutes, the followers then tuned “the blonde is found *** Olé, Olé” and sang a song popular among Essen, in which the person addressed is asked for oral sex.

The main reason for the rough failures was the 24th minute when Verl took the lead through a goal from Berkan Taz. In the previous solo of taz, Michel stood in the way of defender Klaus Gjasula, who could no longer disrupt it. When Gjasula complained to the referee afterwards, she showed him the yellow card. “Then she stood very, completely shitty and then react to the player yellow, I just find that,” said the Essener coach, Uwe Koschinat after the final whistle.

Nevertheless, Koschinat, like other Essen professionals, made it clear that they did not end up with 0: 3 because of the referee’s error, but because they were simply worse.

During the game there was neither a reaction to sexist chants on the square nor the officials on the edge of the field. After that, the FC Verl referee representative pointed out the incidents, but in the debriefing and in conversation with referee Michel, they were not an issue.

In the meantime, the DFB is investigating in the cause after the association has been referred to the incidents by researching the “Sportschau”. Immediately after the game, only the “reported.

In contrast to racism and other discrimination, sexism is not a major topic. Sexist sayings and misogyny are accepted in the football dominated by men or are even considered normal.

“If sexism appears in such a massive form as in this example and then hardly recognized or thematized by anyone as such, then this is a clear sign that this is the normal state in this context,” fan researcher Gabler told the “Sportschau”. “Sexism is still normalized in football.”

Even the only referee in the men’s Bundesliga, Bibiana Steinhaus, was regularly considered with the desertest insults such as “whore” or “bitch” in the stadium. Steinhaus whistled from 2017 to 2020 in the highest division. In general, the proportion of women in the referees across Germany is only 4.5 percent, and usually they whistle women’s games. In the first three men’s leagues, Fabienne Michel, who is also a FIFA referee, is actually the only woman.