DFB admits failure of VAR protocols in Wednesday fixture
Match official Matthias Jöllenbeck immediately admitted his mistaken penalty call following the Mainz-Augsburg match last night.
On Thursday morning, the DFB's referee management committee also acknowledged the error and stated that existing VAR protocols should have prevented it.
A crucial win for FC Augsburg last night arguably might not have been possible had referee Matthias Jöllenbeck not incorrectly awarded Augsburg an early penalty in the 10th minute. Jöllenbeck falsely decided that FSV keeper Robin Zentner had brought down FCA striker Florian Niederlechner in the area. Replays confirmed that Niederlechner was already on the way down and had, in fact, initiated contact with Zentner.
On Thursday morning, the DFB's referee management committee also acknowledged the error and stated that existing VAR protocols should have prevented it.
Zentner, Mainz trainer Bo Svensson, and club sporting director Martin Schmidt were most unhappy over what they all referred to as a "flagrant dive" afterwards. None of the Rheinhessen actors who spoke to the press afterwards blamed Jöllenbeck specifically. Instead, Zentner, Schmidt, and Svensson wondered aloud why the VAR officiating team in Köln didn't intervene.
For his part, Jöllenbeck apologized immediately.
"A clear mistake on my part," the 35-year-old told the Sky mics in a post-match interview, "I would have liked to have been corrected. That wasn't merely not a penalty, but a clear dive."
Jöllenbeck begged the pardon of everyone involved in the match after his admission of guilt. Insofar as his "wish to be corrected no matter what I say", the DFB referee management team released a statement on Thursday saying that VAR team leader Tobias Stieler "Absolutely had the right to intervene" in the case.
"In this subjective situation, it would be expected that the video referee gave the match official the chance to take a second look," the statement reads, "from our point of view, there is no foul on the play."
The committee, after admitting the failure of the review protocols, vowed to take steps to ensure that VAR teams would always feel it justifiable to intervene in subjective penalty calls.