We talked already about this story a few days ago. For those who don’t know what I am talking about, it is a German 3rd league game and 2 seconds to play. For the rest watch the video right here. Now the decisional body of the league has given their verdict.
This afternoon, the decision has been taken: the game will NOT be replayed and the score will go into the books (Essen beats Kirchheim by 1 point) like that despite the fact that Essen had 6 players on the court in the decisive moments. Here is the exact explication why:
For being a breach of the rule, the referees had to clearly identify that 6 player were on the court at the moment of the inbound. This has not been recognized by any of the referees.
In consequence, the decision to start the game situation was a decision based upon facts and is not receivable for a protest.
The advice by Kirchheim’s Tom Klemm to the referee Mr Marzi only came after the ball was free according to the referees. None of the two referees of the game could say then clearly if there were really 6 players on the court in the remaining two seconds.
Of course, the losing team from Kirchheim does not accept this judgement and will file an appeal. If they don’t get a positive feedback then, this can become a dangerous jurisprudence. It will factually allow players to cheat in the case the referee doesn’t see it.
Well, you can say, a lot of teams or players are doing that already, but this would be a new dimension to bring in a sixth guy in a crucial situation to fake and create chaos in a defense. I really hope that we don’t arrive there.
The worst thing in the whole story for the two involved teams is that this decision may be very important at the end of the season concerning the going-up to the 2nd highest league in Germany. Essen has already reached that goal (also because of this contested win) and Kirchheim may come into a situation where this win is helpful as there are only 2 games left in the season and they will play their direct competitor who is trailing one game behind.
