The IFFHS has devised an equitable method for determining the World’s Best Referee of the Decade 2011-2020. The Federation has taken in consideration the Top 20 of each annual ranking of each category concerned and allocated points to each place. So the first placed received 20 points, the second placed 19 points, the third placed 18 points… and 1 point for the 20th place. If the annual ranking comprised fewer than 20 referees, no point were awarded for the unoccupied places. Adding the points from the individual years, Bibiana Steinhaus won sovereign the Ranking of the World’s Best Woman Referee of Decade 2011-2020. In 2011, she was the first woman to referee a FIFA Women’s World Cup Final and in 2012, the first Woman to referee Summer Olympics Women’s Football Final. In 2017, she became the first female in the history to referee a men’s game in the German Bundesliga and also the first woman to whistle a German men’s Super Cup Final betwenn Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund. Steinhaus was named on the FIFA referees list in 2005 and went on to officiate at a whole host of tournaments. She refereed not only at three FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cups, but also at the last three FIFA Women’s World Cups, in Germany 2011, Canada 2015 and France 2019. She announced her retirement in September 2020. Switzerland's Esther Staubli took the second place in the ranking of the Decade without winning any annual Award. She was always in the Top 10 of the World’s best each year (second in 2017 and 2020) and deserved this place. In the third place, Kateryna Monzul, who won in 2015 before French Stephanie Frappart, winner in 2019 and 2020. The 36-year-old referee is said to have been the first female referee to officiate Europe’s most prestigious and high-level soccer events. (Source: IFFHS)
IFFHS World’s Best Woman Referee of Decade 2011-2020
2. Esther Staubli (SUI) 135 p
3. Kateryna Monzul (UKR) 124 p
4. Stephanie Frappart (FRA) 88 p
5. Katalin Kulcsar (HUN) 78 p
6. Claudia Umpierrez (URU) 71 p
7. Carol Anne Chenard (CAN) 69 p
8. Pernilla Larsson (SWE) 48 p
9. Riem Hussein (GER) 43 p
10. Kate Jacewicz (AUS) 43 p
11. Jenny Palmqvist (SWE) 39 p
12. Teodora Albon (ROU) 39 p
13. Anastasia Pustovoitova (RUS) 32 p
14. Jana Adamkova (CZE) 28 p
15. Carolina Vitulano (ITA) 28 p
16. Anna-Marie Keighley (NZL) 27 p
17. Gladys Lengwe (ZAM) 24 p
18. Sara Persson (SWE) 24 p
19. Olga Miranda (PAR) 22 p
20. Ri Hyang-Ok (PRK) 18 p