The game was almost over. The referee Martin Petersen had called for five minutes of added time. In the second minute, Bochum goalkeeper Patrick Drewes took a lot of time to take a goal kick because his VfL was reasonably satisfied with this 1-1 draw in their away game at Union Berlin. Petersen showed Drewes a yellow card for time play. The goalkeeper made another attempt – when a lighter came flying from behind and hit him on the head.
Drewes paused, raised his arm and signaled to the referee that something had flown. He fell to his knees, but stood up again, picked up the lighter from the ground and brought it to the referee as evidence. He then lay down again, was treated and later led into the cabin with support from two carers. The game was interrupted. There were just under four minutes left in the game. Both teams were sent to the dressing rooms. The interruption ultimately lasted 28 minutes. The perpetrator in the stands was identified and handed over to the police.
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“Patrick was dazed in the dressing room,” reported Bochum coach Dieter Hecking. The goalkeeper was even taken to the hospital. “I’m not a doctor,” said Hecking, “we had to clarify it.” Striker Philipp Hofmann, who had to play in goal for the last four minutes of stoppage time because Bochum’s substitution quota had been exhausted, said: “It’s not at all about how Patrick was hit hard or whether he’s bleeding – it’s the matter.”
VfL managing director Ilja Kaenzig also argued this. “The game should have been stopped according to the interpretation of the rules,” claimed the 51-year-old Swiss, “but that didn’t happen, so we continued playing under protest and will lodge an objection on Monday.” Union sports director Horst Heldt had his own theory about it , what happened in the Bochum dressing room during the break in the game: “The general counsel probably advised the Bochum team not to continue playing,” said Heldt on Sky.
In Berlin, no official is hit, as has already happened in the Bundesliga, but the Bochum goalkeeper
The difference this time: It wasn’t an official who was hit, but a player. This meant that there was no immanent abandonment of the game. During the break, referee Petersen spoke on the phone with rules chief Lutz Wagner and in the dressing room with the police as well as with Union sports director Heldt and Gladbach coach Gerardo Seoane. Petersen said: “Both teams have agreed to continue playing, and those responsible for security have told me that the safety of the players is guaranteed and that it can be carried out properly – these are the crucial points.” He was then able to continue the game. “If things had flown in again, the game would have been stopped. That was clearly announced in the stadium.”
For VfL Bochum, this 1-1 draw in the 14th game of the season was only the third point win, the third draw at least brought a decent result. Eleven games were lost. With three points and 11:35 goals, VfL has the second-worst record that a club has had after matchday 14 in 62 years of the Bundesliga, behind SpVgg Greuther Fürth (2021/22, 1 point, 12:46 goals). Descent is looming. The Revierklub could therefore use three points on the green table. In view of the distribution of television money according to league and table position, staying in the league would be worth many millions of euros, which is another reason why an objection is necessary out of your own duty of care.
The people of Bochum are hoping for an annulment of the result in paragraph 13 (“Objection against match scoring”) with sub-point 2b in the game rules of the German Football League, which states: “Objections against the match scoring can be made with the following factual justification, among other things: Weakening of one’s own team due to a circumstance that occurred during the game that was unavoidable and not related to the game and an injury sustained during it.”
Incidentally, nothing happened in the last four minutes of the game because the players from both teams agreed on a non-aggression pact and just passed the ball to each other. After Bochum’s Koji Miyoshi was shown the red card for a brutal foul in the 13th minute and goalkeeper Drewes had to leave injured without a substitute being allowed to replace him, the Bochum team were only down to nine. If the Berliners had used this circumstance to score the winning goal, the situation might have escalated.
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