Bundesliga promotion: Not final yet

The promotion of Fortuna Düsseldorf to the Bundesliga has not been officially ratified. Hertha BSC has appealed to the DFB on the basis of the chaotic last minutes in overtime, when Fortuna fans stormed the field, thinking the game was over. That wanker Michael Preetz, the GM of Hertha, wants the game replayed. Apparently “Hertha players feared for their lives.” Well, Preetz certainly deserves some fear, since his incompetant management has certainly helped get Hertha to their chaotic state. In addition, the referee has announced he was attacked by various Berlin players and is threatening to sue. The DFB has apparently confirmed that they will punish the players. (Likely punishment is forcing them to extend their contracts another year with Hertha).

The DFB will issue a final ruling on Monday.

What a mess. Just another reason why the playoff is stupid and Hertha should have been relegated as the 3rd worst team.

6 thoughts on “Bundesliga promotion: Not final yet

  1. I hope that the DFB sees sense and tells Hertha where to stick it. Not one of their players was hurt when the fans invaded, it was an honest to God mistake, they thought the games was over and cleared the pitch pretty quickly when they realised it wasn’t.

    I am a bit angry about how the press has reported this tho, even the west German press has claimed that all Düsseldorf fans are hooligans and it is a disgrace to football. Wake up idiots!

  2. I like the playoff format. It makes the possibly promoted team prove they can play a Bundesliga side and be competitive. It also lets the possibly relegated side save themselves after a good late season push, if there is one. There are plusses and minuses, but remember: with no playoff, ‘Gladbach wouldn’t be Champions League bound next year.

    • … and double winner Dortmund by now might have been in the Regionalliga, instead of the Champions League :-)
      I don’t mind the playoffs either. One thing to keep in mind is that major 20-team-leagues (in England, France, Italy, Spain) relegate 3 teams as well, so the smaller Bundesliga is probably right to only offer 2.5 promotion spots, so to speak.

      • My point would be that if after 34 games you have proved to be rubbish, why be given another chance to save yourselves? Germany is the only major European league that does this. I don’t mind a 4 team play-off (3rd to 6th in the 2. Liga) to go up, but don’t give the bad teams another chance.

        With regards to Gladbach, they were helpeed massively last season by the Ref who allowed them to play for around 30 seconds after the game should have finished to score the only goal in the first leg against Bochum. HArdly fair for the successful team to miss out on a duibious Refereeing decision. Plus with current events, if I was in charge at Bochum I’d now be taking the DFB and DFL to court!

  3. If they do appeal I hope it gets thrown out again!

    Looks like German football is going the way of Italien football, just because we overtook them in the Uefa rankings doesn’t mean we need to copy the worst parts of the game there!

Leave a Reply to Adam V Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *