In a decision announced today, this complaint has been dismissed by the Permanent Arbitration Court, penalising the on-pitch behaviour of the players of 1. FC Union Berlin, who did not take advantage of their numerical superiority in the game's final phase. It thus confirms the decisions of the DFB's Sports and Federal Courts, to award the match, which was ended by the referee with the scores level at 1-1, as a 2-0 victory for VfL Bochum. 

Chairman of the Arbitration Court Prof. Dr. Udo Steiner: “The decision of the DFB Sports Court is free of legal errors and is based on the provisions of the DFB Legal and Procedural Regulations. The conditions of § 18 No. 4 Sentence 2 are met. The match was not interrupted, but continued, however, the participating teams mutually refrained from scoring additional goals. Therefore, the Arbitration Court has regarded this case as a factual match interruption and equated it with a formal match interruption by a referee.”

“We accept the ruling of the Arbitration Court, even if it does not correspond to our view of a fair sporting competition in the Bundesliga. In the end, it is primarily the responsibility of the participating clubs to ensure the integrity of the competition, to protect sporting results, and not to attempt to exploit external events for their own advantage,” said Dirk Zingler, President of 1. FC Union Berlin, regarding the ruling of the Arbitration Court.