Bundesliga: Frankfurt and Union Berlin outraged by referees

Horst Heldt criticized the refereeing performance after the 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday. The managing director of professional football at 1. FC Union Berlin was particularly upset about Tim Skarke’s goal in the first minute of added time being disallowed due to an offside position. It would have been 2-1 for Berlin.

Captain Christopher Trimmel had been offside by a small margin beforehand. “Who in God’s name should decide that it was an offside goal? We’re talking about millimeter decisions. I’m really angry about the way it was handled today. We lost two points, he takes them Referee to take home,” said Heldt, describing the work of the referees around Harm Osmers as “embarrassing”.

The 54-year-old was anything but satisfied with the comparatively short stoppage time of officially four minutes. Against Borussia Mönchengladbach there would have been an extra eight minutes for no reason – Union conceded 0-1 in the 96th minute on matchday 5. “Today it felt like it took half an hour for the checks. You need tools. The referee didn’t show that today,” Heldt continued.

Benedict Hollerbach, who equalized for Union, assessed the referee’s performance similarly. “When I look at the scene, I find it really scandalous,” said the Unioner and concluded: “That’s not in the spirit of football.”

The people of Frankfurt are also massively critical. This time the reason was the yellow-red card for Arthur Theate in the 77th minute. The cautioned Belgian went into a tough duel with Andras Schäfer and brought him down. However, this only happened because he had previously been fouled by his opponent Tim Skarke.

“It’s difficult to find the right words without getting another call straight away,” said sports director Markus Krösche. “I think it’s clear in the situation that there was a foul before and he’s five meters away and I think he has to see that.” Eintracht wanted to appeal against the expulsion.