Shame penalty of Leipzig
Controversial referee decision in a 1986 football match
Football match
| Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Game scene with, from left to right, Frank Rohde, Hans Richter, and Heiko Brestrich | |||||||
| Event | 1985–86 DDR-Oberliga | ||||||
| |||||||
| Date | 22 March 1986 (1986-03-22) | ||||||
| Venue | Bruno-Plache-Stadion, Leipzig | ||||||
| Referee | Bernd Stumpf (Jena) | ||||||
| Attendance | 13,000 | ||||||
The shame penalty of Leipzig (German: Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig) was a controversial penalty decision by referee Bernd Stumpf during a match in the 1985–86 season of the DDR-Oberliga between 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo, which took place on 22 March 1986 at the Bruno-Plache-Stadion in Leipzig. Following the match, the Deutscher Fußball-Verband (DFV), the umbrella organization for football in East Germany, for the first time permanently banned a referee.[1]
Background
The game between 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig and BFC Dynamo took place on 22 March 1986 at the sold-out Bruno-Plache-Stadion in Leipzig in front of 13,000 spectators. While the defending champions and record title-holders from Berlin led the table before the 18th matchday, the hosts Leipzig, in fourth place, had to win if they wanted to keep up in the race for the championship.
Match
Summary
Leipzig took the lead from Olaf Marschall in the second minute and kept their lead into the break. In the fourth minute of stoppage time, referee Bernd Stumpf awarded a penalty to BFC Dynamo after a duel between Leipzig player Hans Richter and Bernd Schulz of BFC Dynamo, with its legitimacy not completely clear on the television images. Frank Pastor converted the penalty for BFC Dynamo. In an interview with East German football weekly Die neue Fußballwoche after the match, Richter defended himself saying: "I got a cramp, stretched out my arms and touched the Berliner".[2] The match ended in a 1–1 draw, leaving 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig six points behind BFC with eight matchdays remaining, and now in fifth place, seemingly out of the title race. The fact that Leipzig finished only 2 points behind BFC at the end of season gave the game retrospective importance.
Details
| 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig | 1–1 | BFC Dynamo |
|---|---|---|
Marschall  2' | Report | Pastor 90+4' (pen.) |
      Lokomotive Leipzig | BFC Dynamo |
|  |
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Consequences
Due to the alleged long-standing decisions that had gone the way of BFC Dynamo, a tense and aggressive mood could be seen before the match. After the controversial penalty decision of referee Stumpf, unprecedented decisions were made at the association level of East German football. The chairman of 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig Peter Gießner and high-ranking SED officials in Bezirk Leipzig spoke openly of fraud and demanded that such important matches should no longer take place during the trade fair, "since even the foreign guests could notice some of the filth".
SED General Secretary Erich Honecker and the Secretary for Security, Youth and Sport in the SED Central Committee Egon Krenz were fed up with the "football-question" and the "BFC-discussion". And the constant rioting at the guest performances of BFC Dynamo around the country was annoying in the SED Politburo. Stumpf was consequently made an example of. He was initially given a one-year league suspension. But eventually, he was permanently banned as a result of the continuing negative headlines. The sanctions against Stumpf were approved by Honecker and Krenz in the SED Central Committee. The refereeing committee of the DFV was also suspended and replaced by new members. In various reports, the episode went down in history as the Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig, or the "Shame penalty of Leipzig".
Stumpf sent a petition to SED General Secretary Honecker and asked him to review the measures taken against him. He emphasized his previously good service to the GDR and criticized the recent trend to scapegoap officials for decisions made in BFC Dynamo matches (and BFC Dynamo matches only).[3][nb 1] However, Krenz told Honecker that the measures against Stumpf had been "met with broad approval among the population" and asked Honecker to give him the task of answering the letter from Stumpf. Krenz was then allowed to answer Stumpf, and Stumpf was rejected.
Stumpf later testified that the DFV Deputy General Secretary Volker Nickchen had gone for a walk with him before the match for the referee's briefing. Nickchen had talked about the explosiveness of the match and so on. Stumpf claimed that some things Nickchen said during the walk almost sounded as if 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig was going to win.[nb 2] Nickchen has denied the allegation and claims that he only asked Stumpf to whistle with sensitivity.
Through a training video filmed from a different perspective than the television-broadcast, which was published by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) in 2000, it was eventually shown that the penalty was correctly awarded and that the sanction of referee Stumpf was unjustified.[1][5] The training video showed how Hans Richter pushed Bernd Schulz with both hands in the penalty area.[6] In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit in 2000, Stumpf said: "The people have never understood, how this Leipzig game was used by the highest officials in the party and government."[1]
Former professional player Heiko Brestrich, who played the match for BFC Dynamo, and who have since also played for VfB Leipzig, said in an interview with German newspaper Bild in 2017: "I can't say today that it wasn't a penalty. There was contact. And when you see what is being whistled in the Bundesliga today...".[7]
Explanatory notes
- ^ Stumpf said in an interview with German newspaper Die Tageszeitung in 1996: "It could have 'got anyone' back then" and added: "The BFC has been hated. The normal whistle was enough, and the crowds in the stadium stood on the benches and bit into the bars."[4]
- ^ Referee Manfred Roßner, who was sanctioned for his controversial performance during the final of the 1984-85 FDGB-Pokal, also mentioned DFV Deputy General Secretary Volker Nickchen in his version of the events around the final. Roßner claims that he was approached by Nickchen before the match, who confidentially requested "no BFC-friendly decisions".[3]
References
- ^ a b c Deickmann, Christoph (10 August 2000). "Pfiff löst Aufstand aus: Der Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig". Zeit Online (in German). No. 33/2000. Hamburg: Zeit Online GmbH. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2019.
- ^ Baingo, Andreas (25 March 1986). "Zuerst Druck des FCL, dann des BFC" (PDF). Die neue Fußballwoche (in German). Vol. 1986, no. 12. Berlin: DFV der DDR. p. 4. ISSN 0323-8407. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
Doch jetzt stets mit Vorteilen für die Gäste, die in allerletzter Sekunde doch noch zum Remis kam, weil Richter im eigenen Strafraum B. Schulz zu Fall brachte. 'Ich bekam einen Krampf, streckte die Arme vor und berührte so den Berliner', sagte der Leipziger.
- ^ a b McDougall, Alan (2014). The People's Game: Football, State and Society in East Germany (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-107-05203-1.
- ^ Weinreich, Jens (22 March 1996). "Wer fürchtet sich vorm schwarzen Mann?". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Berlin: taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
Es hätte damals „jeden erwischen können", glaubt Bernd Stumpf, der heute im thüringischen Fußballverband Schiedsrichter betreut. „Der BFC ist gehaßt worden. Da hat schon das ganz normale Pfeifen gereicht, und die Massen im Stadion haben auf den Bänken gestanden und in die Gitter gebissen.
- ^ Willmann, Frank (18 June 2014). ""Die Mauer muss weg!"". bpb.de (in German). Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Hahn, Anne (12 May 2022). "BFC Dynamo: Der Mythos des Schiebermeisters". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg: Zeit Online GmbH. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Schmidt, André (15 November 2017). "BFC-MEISTER HEIKO BRESTRICH: Mein Titel wurde mirnicht geschenkt". Bild (in German). Berlin: BILD GmbH. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
'In dieser Saison war es mit Lok eine ganz, ganz enge Geschichte. Das 1:1 war schon richtungsweisend. Ich kann heute nicht sagen, dass es kein Elfer war. Es gab einen Kontakt. Und wenn man heute so sieht, was alles in der Bundesliga gepfiffen wird...'
- General references
- Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig. In: Hanns Leske: Enzyklopädie des DDR-Fußballs. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89533-556-3
- Weinreich, Jens (24 March 2005). "Büttel an der Pfeife" [Büttel at the whistle] (in German). Berliner Zeitung. Archived from the original on 28 November 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2007.
- Leske, Hanns (26 March 2006). "Foul von höchster Stelle" [Foul at the highest level] (in German). Der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
- Voss, Oliver (29 June 2004). "Der Schiri, der hat immer Recht". Die Tageszeitung. Berlin: taz Verlags u. Vertriebs GmbH. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
- Dieckmann, Christoph (10 August 2000). "Pfiff löst Aufstand aus: Der Schand-Elfmeter von Leipzig". Zeit Online (in German). No. 33/2000. Hamburg: Zeit Online GmbH. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
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