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Esther Staubli, the only female referee from the Super League, has surprisingly announced her resignation.
The Super League loses its only female referee. As the Swiss Football Association announced on Monday, Esther Staubli is resigning with immediate effect. The 44-year-old from Bern wants to break new ground, according to the press release.
Staubli had her last appearance as a referee last Friday in the semi-finals of the Women’s Nations League in Lyon. «With the France-Germany game, my work as an active referee comes full circle with one last international highlight. By taking part in the Nations League Finals, I was able to make one last dream come true,” says Staubli, who did not want to go into more detail about her motives.
Legend: Turns his back on the football field to Esther Staubli. Keystone / Patrick B. Krämer
Swiss pioneer
Staubli’s career is full of highlights. She had FIFA status for 19 years and was called up for two Olympic Games and three World and European Championships. In 2017 she refereed the European Championship final between the Netherlands and Denmark. In the Champions League she led the final twice.
In recent years she has also become a pioneer in refereeing: she was the first Swiss woman to referee a men’s senior international match last November with Azerbaijan – Sweden. She has appeared in the men’s Super League 28 times in the last two and a half years.
“What Esther Staubli has achieved for Swiss refereeing can hardly be put into words,” says Sascha Amhof, head of the refereeing department at the Swiss Football Association. “She is a pioneer, a role model and the female figurehead of the department. We therefore note their decision in the year before the Women’s European Championship in Switzerland with the greatest regret.”