Iranian born German referee Babak Rafati became a FIFA referee in 2008 after only 2,5 years and 34 matches in the Bundesliga. He was a UEFA Category 2 referee until the end of 2011 (see below).

referee

Rafati , who always rather watched the referee in a match instead of the teams, became a referee himself at the age of 16 because he thought he could do better. He reached the second BundesLiga in 2000 and the first in 2005.

November 2011

Before a match between Koln and Mainz, Rafati was found by his assistants in his hotel bathroom, his wrists slit. Luckily doctors in the Cologne hospital managed to rescue him. Two days later he was back home again, but newspapers started speculating about the reason. Was it the bad press he got, was he depressed, something happened at home?


His lawyer (?) told the press Rafati had suffered from depressions and anxiety to fail.

FIFA took the German referee off the list almost immediately.

In March 2012, it was not clear whether Rafati would come back refereeing in the Bundesliga, but the possibility of a return was still there according to referee boss Fandel.

April 2012

Rafati announced to quit refereeing.