Even three days after the DFB ruling on the lighter throw in Berlin, tempers at 1. FC Union have not yet calmed down. Now, managing director Horst Heldt has also added his voice.
Just one day after the sharp criticism from President Dirk Zingler, Union’s managing director Horst Heldt also spoke out clearly about the DFB ruling after the lighter throw in Berlin. The focus was primarily on the association and its control committee. “What is the DFB control committee actually doing in this negotiation?” Heldt asked on Sunday evening in the TV program Sky90, and also raised the question: “What does the DFB control committee have to say about it?”
At the hearing on Thursday, the DFB Sports Court had ruled that the Bundesliga game between Union and VfL Bochum, which ended in a 1-1 draw in December, should be awarded 2-0 to Bochum because VfL keeper Patrick Drewes had been hit by a lighter thrown from the Union block shortly before the end of the game.
During the proceedings, the control committee, in the person of its chairman Anton Nachreiner, had criticized, among other things, the fact that the game had been brought to an end with a non-aggression pact between the two teams – and that referee Martin Petersen had not stopped the game immediately after the lighter was thrown. On Sunday, Heldt was annoyed that Nachreiner “had nothing better to do than to take this referee to task”.
In its verdict, the DFB accused Union of “not playing out the game properly”. His counter: “I would have liked to have seen the people who would have said that there were two more men on the pitch, that we could have played for another two or three minutes and attacked Bochum’s goal to try and score a goal. The DFB, which promotes and stands for fair play, accuses us of not attacking more.”
Heldt could not answer the question of whether he would have acted in the same way as the Bochum officials, who only allowed the game to be played to the end under protest and then objected to the match evaluation: ‘I can’t answer yes and no. To be honest, I can’t say.’ However, he did point out: ‘Now there is the possibility of manipulating a game from the outside.’
Control committee investigates against Union
J To be honest, I can’t say.” However, he did raise the following concern: ‘Now there is the possibility of manipulating a game from the outside.’
Control committee investigates against Union
On Saturday, Union president Dirk Zingler had already criticized the DFB and VfL Bochum, calling it an “unsportsmanlike scandal”. According to Zingler, the DFB was “breaking its own rules”, the verdict was “far-fetched” and the control committee had “really aggressively put referee Petersen under pressure” in the hearing. Union had already announced that it would appeal the decision.
In addition to the match being re-rated, Union also faces another penalty from the DFB Control Committee, which has initiated a preliminary investigation into the lighter throw. The club has already had to issue a statement on this. However, a sanction has not yet been determined.