Death threats from BVB supporters
Bundesliga referee received police protection after mistake
04.09.2024, 10:31 a.m.
After a game-deciding mistake, which Borussia Dortmund in particular is annoyed about in the title race, referee Stegemann receives death threats in 2023. Now he reports on the reactions of his wife and the police.
Bundesliga referee Sascha Stegemann says he was under police protection for four weeks after making a serious mistake. The referee had previously denied Borussia Dortmund a legitimate penalty in their match against VfL Bochum at the end of April 2023. The 1-1 draw meant that BVB lost two points in the duel with FC Bayern, who then won the German football championship on the last matchday due to the better goal difference compared to Dortmund, who lost 2-2 to Mainz on matchday 34.
FIFA referee Stegemann had already apologized for his mistake the following day and later made death threats against him public. As the “General-Anzeiger” reports, the 39-year-old from Niederkassel now described further details of the hours and days after the match to other referees at the Cologne Sports University.
In the dressing room, he found a message from his wife on his cell phone. She wrote to him: “Oh my God, they’re tearing you apart.” Stegemann was sure of his decision on the pitch; the video assistant had not asked him to check. He only began to have doubts after the final whistle due to the reactions of the Dortmund players.
The championship was decided with a single decision?
He realized that he had possibly influenced the German championship with a single decision. The referee from the Rhineland said he could not remember the first 30 kilometers of the return journey at all. He had canceled the trip he had promised his son the following day in order to give interviews and take responsibility for his mistake.
According to the report, Stegemann said that in the evening two police officers rang his doorbell and reported specific death threats against him and his family. He was then accompanied to a television appearance in Munich the following day and protected for four weeks.
His wife encouraged him to stay as a referee. Perhaps he lost some of his passion after refereeing the DFB Cup final between Freiburg and Leipzig in 2022, he admitted. “Maybe I felt invulnerable. But you have to be humble. You make most mistakes when you’re successful.”
Memories of Felix Zwayer
Borussia Dortmund fans are said to have threatened a referee a season earlier. Felix Zwayer said he was the target of severe hostility following the fuss surrounding him at the Bundesliga summit in December 2021 between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
“I have received numerous messages on my work email account that are unbelievable and very difficult to deal with and ignore,” the referee explained at the time. The Berlin police wrote to him “that there is a death threat against me on the Internet.” Zwayer had been criticized by Dortmund after their 2-3 defeat in early December 2021.
The then BVB star Jude Bellingham had verbally attacked him particularly harshly. The Englishman had indirectly accused Zwayer of bribery in reference to the Robert Hoyzer scandal in the 2000s.
Zwayer did not referee any Dortmund games for almost three years and was only called back into action as a Bundesliga referee at the Westfalenstadion for the first game of the current season, a 2-0 win for BVB against Eintracht Frankfurt. Stegemann has not been used in any Borussia Dortmund games since April 28, 2023.