Are you crazy?
Football coach is supposed to train the women's team as a "punishment"
Heiko Vogel has been training Borussia Mönchengladbach's second team since last season.
© Fotostand / imago images
After soccer coach Heiko Vogel allegedly behaved "unsportsmanlike" towards two assistant referees, he was supposed to train a women's or girls' team as a punishment. This makes female soccer fans especially angry.
At the game against SV Bergisch Gladbach at the end of January, Heiko Vogel, coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach's second team, broke the collar. The coach of the regional league team was sent to the stands by referee Marcel Benhoff because he had behaved "unsportingly" towards the assistants Vanessa Arlt and Nadine Westerhoff.
At least that is what the verdict of the Westphalian Football Association said, which banned Vogel for two games. His team won the game against Bergisch Gladbach after a 0-1 deficit 2-1, but the game is still expensive for the coach: He has to pay a fine of 1500 euros. Furthermore, Vogel was ordered to lead six training units for a women's or girls' team, reports the "Reviersport" portal.
Punishment against Heiko Vogel annoys fans
This unusual measure by the association is causing trouble. Apparently the association follows the approach that a coach who behaves inappropriately towards assistant referees learns to respect women in football with a women's team. But is this a punishment allowed?
Especially female soccer fans cannot understand the decision. "Hope you have complained to the West German Football Association," wrote Dunya Hayali, presenter of the "Current Sports Studio" on ZDF, via Twitter to Borussia Mönchengladbach, "or what is the nonsense? Why should the whistling / training of a girls' or women's team be a punishment? "
The journalist and author Mara Pfeiffer, founding member of the podcast "Women talk about football", asked: "Is anyone wondering what it means for the trained girls and women to have to serve something like that?" Other fans called the measure a "punishment" for the women's team in question.
Demirbay insulted referee Steinhaus – a similar case
Heiko Vogel, who has already trained the professional team of FC Basel and the U23 of FC Bayern, has to complete the training hours by June 30th. The association's penalty is reminiscent of the Kerem Demirbay case: In a game for Fortuna Düsseldorf, today's Bundesliga kicker from Bayer Leverkusen insulted referee Bibiana Steinhaus in 2015 and then had to lead a game between two girls' teams.
"He expressed his opinion that women on the soccer field have no place in his perception. For me, a limit was crossed. That was one of the few moments in my 26 years as a referee when I actually took a position and said: And I don't listen to that! ", Steinhaus recently said in a Sky documentary about the scene.
Swell: "Reviersport "/ Dunja Hayali / Mara Pfeiffer /" Her Story "on Sky
This article originally appeared on stern.de.