Elversberg have two wins from two as they enjoy a dream start to their maiden Bundesliga campaign, but they will be without head coach Vincent Wagner for their Matchday 3 clash against reigning champions Bayern Munich after the DFB rejected the club’s appeal following his sending off against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
A statement from the DFB read: “In its ruling, the DFB sports court stated that, according to the referee, coach Wagner had approached him from a considerable distance, even though the fourth official had previously instructed him to stop. Wagner intended to complain to the referee and confront him. This account, the sports court stated, is corroborated by the available television footage. Therefore, the sending off was a factual decision by the referee, which is generally binding on the sports court.”
Additionally, the sports court found “no evidence of an obvious error by the referee”. Therefore, as reported by Kicker, Wagner will only be able to watch the game from the stands.
Wagner’s sending off for a second bookable offence came with two yellow cards in quick succession. The first, triggered by Hugo Bolin’s goal that put Gladbach 2-1 ahead. Wagner’s argument that Tim Kleindienst had put the ball out for a throw-in, which initiated the counter-attack leading up to the goal, and thus a throw-in should have been awarded to Elversberg instead. Then, Wagner attempted to speak to referee Petersen after he blew the half-time whistle but, already on a yellow for the previous complaint, was subsequently shown a second yellow card.
GGFN | Daniel Pinder
