In social networks, a story about a football player who insulted a woman-Sudu with a sexist remark is popular. The athlete claimed to judge the match of women's teams as a punishment, during which he deleted eight players and explained his act with the same words: “The place of women in the kitchen”. We checked the reliability of such posts.

Users of social networks most often set out this story as follows: in 2015, football player Karim Demirbai received a red card from a woman who was convicted. Leaving the field, he said to the arbiter: "You would be better to stay in the kitchen." The judge included this phrase in her report, as a result of which Demirbai was removed into five games. He was also sent to judge a female football match. In that game, Demirbai allegedly gave out eight red cards. When he was asked about the reasons for such a tough refereeing, the football player replied: "Because the place of women in the kitchen."

In April 2025, the story became viral on Facebook, where One of the posts collected more than 5800 likes and more than 170 reposts. Earlier, users of other social networks wrote about this story, for example, “VKontakte".

The first part of the viral publications is true, although it is replete with inaccuracies. November 29, 2015 Kerem Demirbay (this is how the athlete’s name is written correctly) took part In the match of the second Bundesliga (second division of the German football championship). His club "Fortune" (Dusseldorf) met with Frankfurt. Demirbai scored two goals, but in the 85th minute he was removed from the field.

This match was judged by a woman - Bibiana Steinhaus. Leaving the field, Demirbai really said To her, that women have no place in football. The referee introduced this incident into the protocol, and the athlete was disqualified for five matches (two of them are conditional, that is, in the end he missed three games).

The second part of the story - about Demirbai, who was convicting the match of women's teams and who deleted eight football players - was partially invented. Judgment was not part of the athlete’s punishment: the Fortune club decided to send him to that game to smooth out the negative impression of the Demirbai act. Already on December 5 in the social networks of the club appeared The report on how the player judged the match of the girls.

Fortune published several photos from the match, including the general picture of Demirbay with young athletes. No more incidents, especially about eight deletions and a new sexist trick, were not reported. By that time, the decision on disqualification had not yet been made, and he would have been waiting for a much more severe punishment if he had allowed such a trick.

In addition, immediately after the match in which Demirbai was deleted, he called the judge and apologized, saying that he had got excited and succumbed to emotions. “I am very sorry about what such a Steinhaus said. I never had to say this phrase, and it does not reflect my attitude towards women, ” - later declared football player.

The story of the Demirbay disqualification was widely covered by sports media in 2015. A partially fictitious second part of the viral posts, in which he allegedly defiantly removed the players, began to diverge in social networks at least Since 2017. The authors of such publications often admired the persistence of the player.

Thus, the football player of the German club really offended the judge, but then apologized for his sexist commentary. Demirbay after that judged the match of the youth female team, but no incidents were reported. At that time, increased attention was attracted to the player, and it is unlikely that the acts that the authors of viral posts write would be unnoticed.

Photo on the cover: F95.de