Hand penalty after video evidence, red after video evidence and a repeated penalty after – yes, that’s right – video evidence: Deniz Aytekin defended the referee team’s decisions in 1. FC Köln’s 3-1 (1-0) win against Borussia Mönchengladbach. “If you look at the situations calmly and soberly, they were all resolved correctly,” said the referee: “Regardless of which fan camp you belong to.”
Before the first penalty, Aytekin noticed Manu Kone’s punishable handball outside the penalty area before the correction was made by the video assistant and Florian Kainz (9th) scored from the spot to make it 1-0.
On the pitch, “things are happening so quickly,” said the Oberasbacher: “I’m happy to have my colleagues in Cologne.”
Later, when the score was now 1-1, the referee turned a yellow card into a red for Kone (72′). “When I was outside, I saw that he (Kone) was hitting him (Cologne’s Dejan Ljubicic, editor) dangerously. That’s why I changed my decision to red,” explained Aytekin, who then gave another one to the dismay of Gladbach made a decision against her.
First, goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas saved a penalty from Kainz, but left the line too early. So Aytekin had the penalty repeated, and this time Kainz scored (76′). “Before the season and also permanently, there was a stricter requirement that the goalkeeper has to have at least one leg on the line,” said Aytekin: “I don’t make this rule. But my job is to implement the rules.”
“I understand every fan, especially from Gladbach’s point of view, that they are annoyed and disappointed,” said the 45-year-old. But ensuring a good mood on all sides is “not our job. We have to implement the rules, so the decisions had to be made that way.”