Berlin (AP) – After the highly controversial referee decisions on the Bundesliga weekend, former top referee Manuel Graefe sharply attacked the German Football Association.
“It’s time, after the DFB drove refereeing structurally and personally against the wall for twelve years, to ask the question of responsibility,” wrote Graefe in a guest comment in the “Bild” newspaper and added: “If it’s in a club or does not work in a company for years, at some point the management level will rightly be held responsible.”
On Saturday there was again great criticism of the role of the video assistant in the Bundesliga. In the top game between FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund (3-1), VAR did not intervene after Benjamin Pavard fouled BVB professional Jude Bellingham from the penalty spot. In the 2-1 victory of 1. FC Union at RB Leipzig, the VAR reported a kick from Leipzig’s Nordi Mukiele against Berlin’s Niko Gießelmann, but the referee did not revise his decision.
There were simply too many wrong decisions, some of which were clearly wrong, said Gräfe, who emphasized: “Here we are again with the performance principle, which has unfortunately been at the back of the DFB referee management for a long time. Previously with the bosses Fandel and Krug, today with Fröhlich, Meyer and Drees.” Gräfe, who had to end his career in the summer of 2021 due to the age limit and was therefore in a clinch with the DFB, calls for a “restart without these political influences”. The 48-year-old Berliner proposes the engagement of the former Swiss referee Urs Meier, who can act “independently and performance-oriented”.