"Completely unacceptable": Effenberg wants Kimmich's booking overturned | OneFootball

Stefan Effenberg has spoken out strongly after the Bundesliga kick-off. In view of the yellow card against Joshua Kimmich, he is now calling for consequences.

Not only the result, but also a controversial scene was the focus of the opening match between FC Bayern and RB Leipzig. Former national player Effenberg was outraged at the handling of the decision.

In the Sport1 double pass, he made his displeasure about the warning against Joshua Kimmich clear: "It's a joke that Kimmich's yellow card still stands. This is completely unacceptable. I expect the DFB to withdraw the yellow card. The [Bayern players] were absolutely right to complain so loudly."

The former captain of FC Bayern particularly criticized the role of the referees: "The officials look very, very bad because it was a standard situation. There was no confusion. I expect the referees to recognize something like this."

VAR intervention was irregular

The background to the excitement was a disallowed goal by Leipzig's Antonio Nusa in the 66th minute. Preceding this was a free kick, which Castello Lukeba executed illegally by dribbling the ball directly without first playing it. Although in such a case according to the rules no intervention of the VAR is provided, the goal was withdrawn on intervention of the video assistant - triggered by vehement protests by Kimmich and his teammates.

DFB referee spokesman Alexander Feuerherdt explained to RTL/ntv and sport.de that the referee had reassured himself at the VAR despite the rule violation at the free kick due to the massive protests: "It's just that the video assistant actually doesn't check whether a free kick execution is correct."

Speaking to the German Press Agency, Feuerherdt also made it clear that the match rating would remain, even if the video evidence here did not comply with the rules. An appeal by RB Leipzig would therefore have no chance of success. According to Feuerherdt, the decision was made "in the interest of football": "Because I think no one could have explained if this goal had stood."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.