April 08, (THEWILL) – The German Football Association has rejected Freiburg’s appeals for punishment, after Bayern Munich was deemed to have played with 12 men for a brief period during their match on Saturday.
Bayern won 4-1, but the main talking point was a late replacement mix-up that saw Niklas Sule and Marcel Sabitzer both come in, but only Corentin Tolisso leave, with Kingsley Coman not realising he had been sent off after the fourth official forgot to show his number.
After the substitutions, play began, but Freiburg alerted the referees after 17 seconds, at which point Bayern corrected the mistake.
Bayern may have been forced to forfeit the game due to the issue under Bundesliga rules, but Freiburg’s appeal to the DFB was turned down.
“The DFB has now decided that Bayern Munich cannot be held responsible for the culpable use of an ineligible player and that the requirements for a game revaluation have not been met,” a statement read.
“Rather, the continuation of the game with 12 men is essentially due to culpable misconduct on the part of the referees.”
Coman was legally allowed to play, so the DFB is not looking into it. Instead, they are looking into the officials, who should not have allowed two Bayern players to enter the field without also seeing two go off.
The DFB also stated that this judgement was in no way comparable to a decision made against Wolfsburg in August 2021. They were penalised for making a sixth substitution when only five were allowed, which was the manager’s error rather than the officials.’
Freiburg has one working day to file an appeal.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
