Babak Rafati has decided to retire

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Former German FIFA referee Babak Rafati from Hannover has announced his final retirement after his psychological illness which led to a suicide attempt prior to a Bundesliga match in November 2011.

DFB stated that they were "sad about having lost one of their best referees", even though they "certainly understood his reasons".

Since 2005, the banker has been in charge of 84 Bundesliga matches. Felix Zwayer and Marco Fritz had replaced him on the FIFA list at the start of 2012.