Freiburg vs. Leverkusen: Women's Bundesliga duel is being new!

Freiburg vs. Leverkusen: Women's Bundesliga duel is being new!

In an unexpected turning point of women's football, the sports court of the German Football Association decided that the controversial game between SC Freiburg and Bayer Leverkusen, which took place on August 31, had to be played again. Bayer Leverkusen's objection was rejected, which confirmed the earlier decision of September 19th

The dispute revolves around a decisive penalty that was imposed in the last minute of the game for Leverkusen. The Freiburgers had taken a protest and justified it with the assertion that the referee team had committed a violation of the rules. In the 88th minute, a penalty, which was originally shot, was repeated due to an supposed rule of the goalkeeper of Freiburg. Bayer player Kristin Kögel finally converted the goal again and thus secured the victory at short notice.

The controversial penalty and its consequences

The presiding judge, Heinz Müller, explained why the sports court followed the opinion of SC Freiburg. "It is not a fundamentally not verifiable factual decision, but the ignorance of a rule and thus a violation of the standard," he said. Müller found that this violation of the rules had significantly influenced the end result.

The set of rules states that a penalty can only be repeated if the goalkeeper has behaved in such a way that this directly influenced the shooter. The Freiburg women argued that this was not true in this case. The sports court found that the corresponding rule, which is known as the rule 14 section 2, was disregarded in this game. This meant that due to the incorrect handling of the rules, the original result of 3: 2 in favor of Leverkusen was no longer valid.

The judgment of the sports court is not final; Leverkusen has the opportunity to appeal to the DFB Federal Court within a week against the decision of the sports jurisdiction. The court had already granted the appeal of Freiburg, which ordered the new setting of the game. This decision not only causes discussions in Leverkusen, but could also have far-reaching effects on the table of the women's Bundesliga.