Overview
- Patrick Ittrich, who spoke Sunday on Sport1’s Doppelpass, condemned the pile-on against Tobias Welz and called the public attacks “unbelievably disrespectful.”
- At the start of extra time in Stuttgart vs. Freiburg, Welz blew early for a foul in a duel between Lucas Höler and Jeff Chabot, which stopped play before Freiburg put the ball in the net.
- The German Football Association later acknowledged the call was wrong, and the video assistant did not step in to change the on-field decision.
- Players and pundits condemned the error, with Stuttgart striker Deniz Undav saying a referee could not make a bigger mistake and TV analyst Stefan Effenberg calling it a scandal.
- Ittrich, who will retire after the season like Welz, said Freiburg were clearly disadvantaged and that referees can lose sleep for days after such mistakes.