Andreas Michelmann, President of the German Handball Federation (DHB), has reprimanded former world champion Christian Schwarzer for his criticism of female referees in the men’s field. “It’s a shame that such a great national player is maneuvering himself offside in such a way,” said Michelmann on the sidelines of the Handball World Cup in Poland and Sweden: “I think these statements are absolutely out of date and completely misplaced.”
- The 53-year-old Schwarzer had previously complained regarding the nomination of referees for the men’s World Cup (until January 29). “I have no idea how the idea of letting women whistle for men came up,” said the 2007 world champion in the podcast “Enlightening by Blacky Schwarzer”. In his active career he missed female referees on the field “by no means”: “I wouldn’t have done it: They can whistle for women – and men whistle for men, but that’s my attitude towards it now – and decide it other people regarding it.”
- Michelmann sees things completely differently. “It is now the most normal thing in the world for women to take on such a job,” said the head of the association: “Since we made Jutta Ehrmann-Wolf, herself a former top international referee, head of the DHB refereeing, it is absolutely natural that men AND women regularly whistle in the first and second leagues. That is a completely normal development.”