Arminia Bielefeld’s coach has admitted that he has his goalkeeper preliminary injuries to enable tactical discussions. Viktoria Köln rages because it contradicts the spirit of the rules – at least.
“This is a mess something like that”roared Viktoria Cologne coach Olaf Janßen on the square at the Köln-Höhenberg sports park. Arminia goalkeeper Jonas Kersken had placed on the floor in the urge phase of his team at the 1-0 score for Bielefeld and requested treatment without a recognizable occasion.
The Bielefeld players immediately gathered with coach Mitch Kniat for a tactical meeting at the third division. “The goalkeeper represents an injury, that is unsportsmanlike”said Janßen, who was punished by the referee for his protest away from the coaching zone with a red card. “That excited me because I told the referee beforehand that it would happen.”
Olaf Janßen, coach of Viktoria Cologne
Goalkeeper Kersken then denied that he had faked an injury. “It is a long season with more than 40 games that leaves their traces. When actions come, the small injuries open again and are painful, then I let myself be treated”he said in “Magenta Sport”. His trainer Kniat, on the other hand, bluntly clarified the situation: his team is completely deliberate.
Kniat: “… then we can also use the gray areas for ourselves”
The background: If a field player wants to be injured and treated, he has to leave the field while the game continues. This does not apply to a goalkeeper, he is treated in the field and the game interrupted. Bielefeld takes advantage of this regulations to prevent tactical discussions on the edge of the field. Bielefeld is neither the first nor the only team in football that uses the trick.
“These are the rules. You can title that as unsportsmanlike”said Bielefeld’s coach Kniat at the press conference after the game. As a result, he became uniformed by several unjust rules in his view and closed his contribution with the words: “I learned a word from the referees in the whole years in which I am a coach: gray area. This is always used when the referee is wrong. Then it says: ‘It is a gray zone’. When handball, all of these are gray zones. Then we can also use the gray areas for us.”
As early as March after the game against Saarbrücken, Kniat said the “New Westphalian”: “This is always planned with the goalkeeper. Kersken has nothing, but we want to make a few changes tactically. There are a few tricks that the boys have to learn. If you as a footballer were as bad as I have, you have to come up with something. As far as this is concerned, I was very far ahead.” I can pass it on to the boys. “
Mitch Kniat on the sidelines
Schiri spokesman: Impartial powerless not to prove misconduct
Alex Feuerherdt, spokesman for DFB Schiri GmbH, sees the referees largely powerless on this question. “You can’t prove anything to the goalkeeper”says Feuerherdt. “And the other players also behave in accordance with the tactic discussion if they do not leave the field.” If afterwards there is a negative behavior, this would be up to the DFB control committee.
Alex Feuerherdt, spokesman for DFB Schiri GmbH
But Kniat now admitted publicly that his team acts at least against the spirit of the rule. Will the DFB Control Committee be initiated to sanction Arminia Bielefeld because of this behavior? The DFB is requested from the sports show to this matter.
Janßen: “Is that in the interest of the inventor? I don’t think.”
Viktoria Cologne’s coach Janßen remains dissatisfied with the situation. “We imagine everyone does that now”said Janßen. “And then? The goalkeeper goes down three times and we are doing a meeting three times? Is that in the interest of the inventor? I don’t think.”
Janßen was the other way around in a similar situation: in the 1990/91 season he played at 1. FC Köln. His then coach Erich Rutemöller tried to skillfully take advantage of a gray area. With the words “Make et” he advised Frank Ordenewitz in the DFB Cup semi-final against the MSV Duisburg for a deliberately provoked red card.
Erich Rutemöller in 1991
According to the then valid rules, the player could have served the lock in the league in order to be eligible to play in the final in Berlin. But Rutemöller publicly admitted the plan. The DFB sports court blocked Ordenewitz for the final that Cologne lost in a penalty shootout against Werder Bremen.