Bayern Munich fan group points out the importance of women in football. (Source: AP)A day before the International Women’s Day, a Bayern Munich fan group Colegio slammed Iran for cancelling the broadcast of Bayern’s away game at Augsburg in February due to a female official.
The match, which took place on February 15, saw the highly-rated German official Bibiana Steinhaus taking over the role as the referee, and Iranian state broadcaster IRIB ‘canceled’ the screening, reportedly due to the same reason.
In a post on their official Instagram account, the fan group wrote: “Holding the whistle, the microphone or in the terraces: Women are part of football!”
Bayern Munich’s game away at Augsburg was not broadcast in Iran due to Bibiana Steinhaus being the referee.
Bayern Munich ultra group Colegio in response:
“Holding the whistle, the microphone or in the terraces: Women are part of football!”
(Via @ultraschoen) 1/4 pic.twitter.com/mRyaigjjoQ
— Felix Tamsut (@ftamsut) 6 March 2019
The group further recalled the incident last year when Claudia Neumann became the first woman on German TV to commentate at a World Cup game but had to face numerous sexist remarks that prompted her channel to file official complaints against some users. Colegio said that women in football are not given fair treatment.
“Women are not being treated in equal in football… As refs, when the game was not shown in Iran because of Steinhaus… Be it on the microphone, when Claudia Neumann commentated games & got hostile reviews… or in the stands, where women are often not accepted as part of the fan scene just because of their gender,” the post read.
The group added that ‘misogyny’ exists in modern day football. “This goes to show how misogyny plays a big part in football in 2019,” it said.
Ending the post, the group asked the fans to remember the role played by women in the sport. “One thing should be clear: Women are part of football!”
Bayern had won the away encounter at Augsburg 3-2, despite going down by one goal in the very first minute. Currently, the reigning Bundesliga champions are sitting at the second position in the table, trailing on goal difference to Borussia Dortmund for the top spot.
