Borussia Dortmund has worked its way to the top of the table in the Bundesliga. BVB narrowly won against TSG Hoffenheim, also because referee Petersen took back a penalty. That really pisses off a former colleague.
Former FIFA referee Torsten Kinhöfer has criticized referee Martin Petersen for a VAR decision in the Bundesliga game between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Borussia Dortmund. "There is an iron rule for referees: a foul is a foul - no matter where it takes place. This rule was broken internally yesterday," Kinhöfer wrote in his column for "Bild am Sonntag".
In BVB's 1-0 win on Saturday, guest professional Emre Can touched his opponent Kevin Akpoguma on the edge of the penalty area shortly after the break. After a tip from video assistant Daniel Schlager, Petersen looked at the scene again on the screen, but then gave the dropped ball and no penalty. "To take back this foul just because it was inside the penalty area is not possible at all. Outside foul, inside no foul? Such a rule bending is almost in the area of a rule violation", judged Kinhöfer.
The referee and rules experts from "Collinas Erben" contradict in a detailed analysis: "After the review, the referee decides: The VAR is right, it's not a foul and therefore not a penalty. At the end of an on-field review, however, it always has to the correct continuation of the game. There can't be a free kick, the contact was inside. Neither did a penalty kick, because in the end "no foul" was recognized. So the whistle was mistaken from a technical point of view, so it can only continue with a dropped ball. "
Petersen himself had explained his view of the scene after the game on the Sky TV channel: "First of all, on the field I identified a pushing and considered it punishable and gave a free kick," said the 37-year-old: "Then the VAR did that checked and determined that the contact was inside and there was also light foot contact. The penalty would then have been a penalty."
But after looking at the pictures, he "saw clearly that pushing wasn't enough for a free kick, the foot contact was more below the sole, that wasn't enough for me overall. In the end, the result was: pushing isn't enough and neither is it Foot contact is not enough for the penalty and I got to the drop ball."
