“It’s about time”
World champion calls for 12-game ban for Bundesliga professional
Updated 11/24/2025 – 9:38 a.mReading time: 1 min.
Nine expulsions speak for themselves. After Dominik Kohr’s recent sending off, Olaf Thon is calling for decisive action.
After his recent sending off, Dominik Kohr is once again the focus of the discussion about the limits of what is permitted in professional football. The FSV Mainz 05 player was shown a red card last Friday in the Bundesliga game against TSG Hoffenheim (1-1) after a tough tackle on Max Moerstedt. It was the ninth dismissal of his career in the Bundesliga – a number that makes a former player sit up and take notice.
In his “Kicker” column, Olaf Thon advocates for a long ban: “It’s time to set an example,” wrote the 1990 world champion. Given the large number of offenses, he considers a ban of up to twelve weeks to be “absolutely appropriate”.
Kohr had publicly apologized to his opponent, but that didn’t change Thon’s assessment. “I have often played against opponents who overdid it with their pace. In a certain way, this is certainly part of the contact sport of football and you sometimes have to endure a lot,” wrote the former Schalke and Bayern professional: “But a limit has been crossed when you constantly endanger the health of your opponents.”
According to Thon, it doesn’t help much if the player protests his innocence when the images on the pitch speak a different language. Kohr has “long had a reputation for deliberately wanting to hurt his opponents.”