Officially! SC Freiburg’s appeal dismissed after FC Bayern made a mistake

The 4-1 win by leaders Bayern Munich against SC Freiburg, despite the error in the substitution, has endured even after a legal review. The sports court of the German Football Association (DFB) rejected the objection from Breisgau on Friday.

According to the verdict, the culpable use of a player who is not eligible to play cannot be blamed on Bayern, but goes back to “culpable misconduct” on the part of the referee. An objection to the decision of the single judge can be lodged with the DFB sports court within one working day.

“First of all, we assume that all FC Bayern players were eligible to play,” said Stephan Oberholz (Leipzig), chairman of the DFB sports court: “Regardless of this, the at best slight contribution to debt by Bayern, which is secondary to the misconduct of the referees, is also sufficient from a point of view of proportionality to justify the serious legal consequences of a game revaluation.”

Freiburg justified its objection with the fact that Bayern Munich briefly had twelve instead of the allowed eleven men on the field during a substitution phase in the 86th minute and thus, according to paragraph 17 paragraph two, a player who was not eligible to play or be involved at that time was involved. Kingsley Coman failed to leave the pitch in time for a double substitution.

In the verdict, Oberholz refers to rule three of the football rules, where the duties of the referee team in the substitution process are clearly defined. “They didn’t fulfill their obligation to check the number of players and the strength of the team. In the end, the referee continued the match without checking the permitted number of players again,” said Oberholz.