Fortuna Dusseldorf midfielder Kerem Demirbay has been made to referee a girls' soccer game after telling a female referee that 'women have no place in men’s football.'
Demirbay had just been sent off for a second yellow when he made the scurrilous remark to female referee Bibiana Steinhaus in a Bundesliga 2 match against FSV Frankfurt last week.
كريم ديمربي لاعب دوسلدور٠يطرد بعد Øصوله على البطاقة الصÙراء الثانية ويقول للØكمة لا مكان للنساء ÙÙŠ كرة القدم للرجال https://t.co/S7OIRm6VCu
— mohammed alnumair (@MohamedAlnumair) December 3, 2015
The Turkish player, who apologised to the referee in person, must now officiate at a girls' soccer game and has also been banned from the next five games, two of which will be suspended. It's understood that his club have lodged an appeal to the German FA, stating that the sentence is 'unreasonably high.'
On his personal Facebook account, Demirbay wrote:
'This is what happens at Fortuna when a young player makes a mistake.'
In relation to his comments to Steinhaus, Demirbay conceded: 'I should never have said this sentence and it does not reflect my image of women.' Bibiana Steinhaus previously refereed the 2011 women’s World Cup final as well as the 2012 Olympic final in London.
