AUDIO: BTSV coach Backhaus to Yardimci-Rot: “Action has no place in football” (3 min)
As of: October 27, 2025 3:40 p.m
Erencan Yardimci commented on social media the day after he was sent off at Niedersachsensenderby. The Eintracht Braunschweig striker apologized in a post to everyone – except Hannover defender Boris Tomiak, whom he had choked. The DFB sports court announced the duration of his ban on Monday.
After a foul by Hannover’s Hayate Matsuda on Braunschweig’s Florian Flick – far away from the action – Tomiak and Yardimci clashed in the 20th minute. The BTSV striker’s fuses burned out, he grabbed the 96 defender’s neck with both hands and choked him for a short time. Referee Robert Hartmann (Wangen im Allgäu) sent him off with a red card. Eintracht played 70 minutes outnumbered and lost 3-0.
Yardimci wrote in a story on the social media platform Instagram on Monday that he was “really very sad about what happened yesterday.” He is aware “that the consequences have affected each of us.” He “lost control and let my team down in such a crucial game.”
“I will learn the necessary lessons from this mistake and work even harder every day to avoid something like this happening again.”
BTSV striker Erencan Yardimci
He wanted to “sincerely apologize to my teammates, the coaching staff and, above all, to our fans” and, Yardimci continued, “will learn the necessary lessons” and “work even harder so as not to experience something like this again.” Opponent Tomiak did not mention Eintracht’s best attacker to date (three goals) in his post.
Three-game suspension for Yardimci
It was not to be expected that an apology before the DFB sports court could have had a mitigating effect on the punishment. The DFB sports court suspended him for three championship games, meaning he will miss next Saturday against 1. FC Nürnberg as well as the home game against VfL Bochum and the game at Hertha BSC. Eintracht Braunschweig has already agreed to the verdict, making it legally binding.
Internally, coach Heiner Backhaus sharply criticized his attacker immediately after the game: “There’s no excuse for that. It has no place in football.” The coach also announced a fine for the 23-year-old: “It will be expensive for him. Such a sending off completely changes the statics of the game for us.”
Backhaus criticizes and protects Yardimci
Because the Turkish loan player from 1899 Hoffenheim was quickly and massively insulted on social networks, Backhaus not only criticized him but also stood in front of the striker. “I’ll give him a hug because he’s the biggest critic of himself,” said the Eintracht coach. “He feels sorry because he is a very level-headed, quiet boy.”
Yardimci is a player “who is totally reflective and often places too much blame on himself. I don’t want this to happen to him more often in his career. He is a player who is on loan from the Bundesliga and who needs this maturation process here. He puts a lot of pressure on himself and definitely wants to play in the Bundesliga again. We have to influence this now in analyzing this and in personal development. Because it can always happen that such a fast player Sometimes things get provoked on the field.”