Tobias Stieler (41) whistled Bayern’s 1:2 in Leverkusen only got two penalties at the announcement of the Cologne video cellar, which he had previously wrongly punished as swallows.
BILD asked ex-Fifa referee Manuel Gräfe (49): You sharply criticized Tobias Stieler on Twitter after the game and spoke of “personal misdevelopments”. What do you mean exactly?
Gräfe: Such an analysis or criticism is never aimed at the person himself, but rather at the decisions on the pitch or those of the DFB. In the tweet – as before – I criticized the poor performance principle of referee management. However, referees are still not adequately classified, which can lead to such consequences as the game in Leverkusen on Sunday. I ask myself: Why shouldn’t the referees and their leadership be exactly like the players and coaches in the Bundesliga have to be measured by their actions?
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In your opinion, is Stieler unqualified to referee in the Bundesliga and internationally?
If you make serious mistakes more often and repeatedly, you certainly don’t belong to the European top due to the lack of performance – and that’s what it’s all about. That was the mentioned undesirable development in personnel, for which the referee management has been responsible for the last 10 years. Felix Brych, on the other hand, was rightly positioned internationally by our former boss Volker Roth and delivered top performances there for over ten years – except for the 2018 World Cup.
Stieler spoke of taking the two withdrawn 911s “with humor”. Do you also find the actions funny?
Referees make mistakes like I used to. After that I felt bad and didn’t feel like laughing. But people are different, and everyone deals with their mistakes differently. But I find it strange how individual referees have been expressing themselves in recent interviews.
Who do you think are currently the best and weakest referees in the Bundesliga?
Currently the ‘old hands’ Aytekin, Brych and Fritz, who wouldn’t surprise me if they were nominated for the top game between Bayern and BVB. For me, among the younger players, Sven Jablonski has been the greatest talent for over ten years. There are other ambitious, ambitious young people. I don’t name weaker referees for me. Overall, there are too few top referees. Uefa recently informed the DFB referee management of the lack of quality. Then there was a crisis meeting of Lutz Michael Fröhlich & Co. with the German Fifa referees. Uefa does not agree with the performance and is concerned. So I’m not exclusive to that opinion.
If you were DFB referee boss: What would you change first?
The idea of performance should be above everything else. The interpretation of handball can be formulated more clearly and precisely. And the VAR intervention to be fundamentally defined.
Some of you have successfully sued against the age limit of the DFB. Do you still dare to whistle the Bundesliga?
Sure, why not? But things turned out differently, although thankfully almost two years ago so many players, coaches and managers spoke out in favor of me continuing.
Referee boss Fröhlich described it as a good idea on BILD TV for a former professional like Thomas Müller to become a referee after his career …
Professionals automatically bring personality and football expertise with them. Müller certainly could, because he is a leader himself at Bayern. But I can’t imagine that too many ex-professionals really want to do that.
