FC Bayern’s appeal against Luis Diaz’s suspension has failed and the German Football Association’s sports court has now reached a final decision
FC Bayern’s appeal against Luis Diaz’s yellow-red card from the Bundesliga match at Bayer Leverkusen remains unsuccessful. As officially announced by the German Football Association, the DFB Sports Court has rejected the Munich team’s protest as unfounded in a single-judge procedure
The automatic ban of one Bundesliga match therefore remains in place
The chairman of the DFB Sports Court, Stephan Oberholz, explained the decision as follows: „When asked, referee Dingert stated that he had noticed that player Diaz had taken off while sprinting into the penalty area without the Leverkusen goalkeeper being involved, which he had judged to be an unsportsmanlike swallow. Although he had only noticed the subsequent hit on the foot after viewing the video footage after the match, even taking this into account, player Diaz had sought and found contact beforehand, so his decision was not completely wrong.“
Oberholz also added: „The fact that the referee’s decision would probably not have been made in the same way, taking into account the television images, is not relevant for the sports court’s assessment. The decisive factor is that the process is a factual decision that can only be corrected if it is serious, obvious and beyond any doubt objectively incorrect. That is not the case here.“
DFB protects the referee’s factual decision
Diaz was sent off with a yellow card in the 84th minute of the Bundesliga match between Bayer Leverkusen and FC Bayern. Referee Christian Dingert had judged a scene in the penalty area to be a foul
In principle, a yellow-red card automatically results in a one-match ban. According to the rules, the referee’s factual decision is protected by the world governing body FIFA
A correction is only possible if there is an obvious error, which is exactly what the DFB sports court did not consider to be the case in this instance
Bayern had previously lodged an appeal
FC Bayern had officially lodged an appeal against the ban on Sunday, following several controversial decisions in the match against Leverkusen
Referee Dingert himself also admitted after the match that the yellow-red card had been very harsh in retrospect
With the DFB’s decision, Diaz now remains suspended for one Bundesliga match. However, an appeal against the decision of the single judge can be lodged again with the sports court within 24 hours.