Bundesliga referee Babak Rafati with suicide attempt

PFDC – COLOGNE, German-Iranian FIFA referee Babak Rafati (41) was found critically injured in his hotel room before the German Bundesliga match between FC Cologne and FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday midmorning.

German sources close to the German Football Federation and the German referee federation reported that the German FIFA referee with Iranian roots tried to commit suicide in his hotel room in Cologne before the kickoff at the “Cologne Rhein-Energie-Stadion”.

The 41-year old Rafati who started his career as a referee back in 1997 and was granted FIFA rank in 2008, is currently under clinical care in a hospital. According to the German online news magazine “bild.de”, Rafati’s condition has been described as critical.