Hajduk's Return Referee Makes History
German referee Matthias Jöllenbeck will officiate Hajduk at Poljud, and his 2022 gesture is particularly remembered when he stopped a Bundesliga match to allow a Muslim player to break his fast.
German referee Matthias Jöllenbeck will officiate Hajduk at Poljud, and his 2022 gesture is particularly remembered when he stopped a Bundesliga match to allow a Muslim player to break his fast.
UEFA has appointed a German refereeing team for the return leg of the Conference League third qualifying round between Hajduk and Žalgiris at Poljud. The main referee will be 39-year-old Matthias Jöllenbeck, assisted by Dominik Schaal and Jonas Weickenmeier. The fourth official is Tobias Reichel, while Katrin Rafalski and AVAR Robert Hartmann will be in the VAR room.
Jöllenbeck has been a Bundesliga referee since 2020 and has held the FIFA badge since last year. Outside football, he works as an orthopedic specialist. Interestingly, he has never officiated a match involving Croatian clubs or the national team.
Although he is a highly experienced referee who has led numerous Bundesliga matches, Jöllenbeck drew the most attention in April 2022. At that time, in the 65th minute of the match between Augsburg and Mainz, he briefly stopped play so that the then-captain of the visitors, Moussa Niakhaté, could break his Ramadan fast.
During Ramadan, Muslim believers do not consume food or drink from dawn until sunset. As the sun set during the second half, Jöllenbeck allowed the player to drink water and thus perform iftar.
"Moussa asked me if he could drink water after sunset, between the 60th and 70th minute of the match. Of course, I said he could. I gave him the signal when the time he asked about came. I waited for him to drink the water and thus end his fast that day," Jöllenbeck explained.
Niakhaté himself revealed that he had asked the referee at halftime for a brief pause in the second half. He was fully aware that Jöllenbeck was not obliged to grant his request.
"I know he didn't have to do it, and if he had refused, I would have understood," Niakhaté said at the time.
This humane gesture by the German referee received widespread praise and set a precedent that is still often used in the Bundesliga today. Now, the same referee comes to Poljud, where Hajduk will defend a significant 5:2 advantage from the first leg played in Vilnius on Thursday.
