Bochum Can Now Officially Plan with Two More Points in the Relegation Battle
The German Football Association’s (DFB) Federal Court announced on Friday evening that it had rejected the appeal by Union Berlin against the previous ruling of the DFB Sports Court on the Bochum complaint against the Bundesliga match between 1. FC Union Berlin and VfL Bochum. As a result, the match, which ended 2-0 in favor of Bochum, will remain as such.
Earlier in the session, the DFB Federal Court had also rejected the appeals by Holstein Kiel and FC St. Pauli as inadmissible.
Oskar Riedmeyer, the chairman of the DFB Federal Court, who led the proceedings, said in a statement: “For the DFB Federal Court, a weakening of VfL Bochum had been present, which was caused by a flare thrown by a member of Union Berlin. This negligence will be attributed to Union Berlin.”
Riedmeyer further stated: “We assume that a successful complaint under Paragraph 17 of the Rules and Procedure Ordinance can lead to a point value adjustment or a replay. However, a damage caused by an external factor to an opposing player’s injury cannot be used by the perpetrator to gain an advantage through a replay.”
The DFB Sports Court had previously, on January 9, 2025, in a verbal proceeding, awarded the Bundesliga match between 1. FC Union Berlin and VfL Bochum, which was played on December 14, 2024, as a 2-0 win for Bochum and granted the complaint filed by VfL Bochum against the match rating.
VfL Bochum had filed a complaint after goalkeeper Patrick Drewes was hit on the head by a flare thrown from the Union Berlin spectators’ area a few minutes before the final whistle and was unable to continue playing. The match was continued and eventually ended with a score of 1-1 and then 2-0 in favor of Bochum, after the referee, Martin Petersen, allowed the game to resume. Since Bochum had already exhausted its substitute player quota at the time of the game’s resumption, forward Philipp Hofmann briefly played in goal.
In the table, this final decision currently means that, after 23 matchdays, VfL Bochum is in 16th place, relegation zone, with Heidenheim now behind them in 17th place. Bochum will face TSG Hoffenheim on Saturday and Heidenheim will face Mönchengladbach.