At a district league game in Bochum, a referee was brutally beaten and had to be hospitalized. The escalation of violence in amateur football continues to escalate. In the Osnabrück district, the referees caused a stir with an unusual action.
And yet another brutal attack in amateur football: During a district league game in Bochum, a 27-year-old referee from Hamm was seriously injured after an attack and taken to a hospital for inpatient treatment. Late Sunday afternoon, around 5:15 p.m., the situation escalated after the duel between SV Phönix Bochum and CF Kurdistan. According to the police, a 34-year-old supervisor and the 60-year-old coach of the visiting team and an unknown fan attacked the referee. They are said to have knocked the whistle out of the 27-year-old's mouth and then kicked him several times.
Apparently, references to places played a significant role, as a police spokesman told RTL / ntv. According to WAZ, after the final whistle (1:1), the referee showed a player and the coach red for complaining. First there was a pack formation and then finally the punches and kicks. An incident that is no longer uncommon. Last Wednesday, the German Football Association (DFB) announced a record number of abandoned games in amateur football. In the 2021/22 season, referees had to end 911 games prematurely, the DFB said. More than ever in one season.
"For the first time we have noticed an increase in game abandonments, although we are still in the per thousand range," said DFB Vice President Ronny Zimmermann. The drop-out rate, which has remained stable over the past few years, rose from 0.05 to 0.075 percent. Since 2014/15, the DFB has been producing a situational picture of the amateur sector. In the past season, 1,219,397 matches in amateur football were recorded and evaluated by the association via online match report sheets.
In order to draw attention to the clear increase in violent attacks, the referees in the district of Osnabrück started a remarkable protest action at the weekend. Before the kick-off of the respective games on Sunday, they issued a statement. "In recent weeks, there have been an increasing number of incidents of violence on our sports fields, in which referees have also been insulted, threatened and even physically attacked. We are setting an example against this with our interruption, because this is what the future will look like if nothing changes," it said in the statement, as reported by the NDR. After that, they waited twelve minutes before kicking off the games.
"It should be a signal that it's just before twelve," said district referee chairman Julian Meckfessel of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung". He now waits for a call every Sunday "that there has been a bang somewhere." According to the NOZ, the game was stopped again on the day of the referee's protest. In a district class game, a goalkeeper and an opposing striker clashed in added time. There had been fisticuffs in which the referee was said to have been hit in the head. This showed both players the red card and stopped the game.
