Late February was supposed to bring a routine eighth-tier Kreisliga C match between FC Taxi Duisburg II and SV Rot-Weiss Mülheim. The players warmed up at the pitch in Duisburg, a moment of calm before kickoff. Referee Stefan Kahler began his standard ID checks, a simple task that usually goes unnoticed.
As Kahler flipped through documents, he spotted a young child, reportedly the son of an FC Taxi player, performing small stretches alongside the adults. Nothing seemed amiss—until the child edged closer. In his official report, Kahler described what happened next: “While I was checking the FC Taxi players’ ID, a small child was doing warm-up exercises alongside the players. He came closer and closer to me, then suddenly—to my complete surprise—gave me a sharp bite in my left testicle.”
The pain was immediate. Kahler’s first instinct was to regain composure but realized he couldn’t continue. “I did not start the game because of the pain I was in and the situation. It was the child of one of the FC Taxi players who was to blame,” he noted. Match officials had little choice but to call off the game before a single minute was played.
A bizarrely short-lived fixture
Instead of an afternoon of grassroots soccer, everyone grappled with an incident that quickly overshadowed the entire day. Spectators, already in place for the kickoff, were left without a match to watch.
Many were stunned by how abruptly the event ended. Kahler’s injury prevented him from taking charge of the game, and there was no time to find a replacement referee.
The match will be rescheduled, though no date has been announced. It’s also unclear whether Kahler will return to officiate. League organizers expressed concern about his departure from the field, but no statements about disciplinary measures or further repercussions have surfaced.
As news of the bite spreads, it’s become one of the most unusual match stoppages in recent memory, reminding everyone that in soccer—even at the lower levels—you never know what might happen before the whistle blows.
