Very interesting game situation in this German Bundesliga game. First watch the video from the match between Hertha BSC and 1. FC Nürnberg with referee Michael Weiner. Then answer yourself the following questions. What would you decide: Goal? Yellow or red card? Or would you whistle for offside?

Below the video you’ll find the official statement from the German Football Associations DFB.

A short summary of the situation: Referee Michael Weiner whistles for denying obvious goalscoring opportunity (dogso) because a player (number 31, Nürnberg) uses his hand to prevent the ball from crossing the goal line. After the whistle a player (number 20, Hertha) scores. Shortly after that Weiner went to his assistant referee Norbert Grudzinski and they discussed the situation. According to the linesman a player (number 20, Hertha) in offside position and the Nürnberg goalie had contact. The AR’s interpretation: the number 20 of Hertha was involved in active play. Weiner recalls his initial decision and let play restart with an indirect free kick for offside.

“That interpretation was not correct”, says German FA in a statement on their website. “There’s no duelling for the ball taking place. No player was able to intervene in the game situation with the number 31 of Nürnberg”. That was the situation of the player who handled the ball on the goal line.

DFB added: “Also the contact between the goalie and the number 20 of Nürnberg was nu duel for the ball and both couldn’t interfere with play nor did the Nürnberg player make an offence. When the number 31 of Nürnberg had not handled the ball, it would have been a legitimate goal.”

And why is it not a goal? The player who scored was “gaining an advantage by being in offside position”, say the Laws Of The Game. It means “he was playing a ball that rebounds, is deflected or is played to him from a deliberate save by an opponent having been in an offside position”.

Conclusion: the referee should whistle for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity, give the player who handles the ball a red card and restart play with a penalty kick.

Here is no duel take place at the ball. No player has the option to intervene in the game situation with the No. 31 / N. The contact between the TW / N and the No. 20 / H does not constitute a duel for the ball because they can not intervene in the game situation and a foul No. 20 / H also is not available. If N. 31 / N would not have blocked the ball with his hands and the ball would have gone directly into the goal, the results would have been obtained correctly. ”

was