BERLIN: Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia has been fined 5,000 euros ($5,590) by the German Football Association (DFB) for describing a controversial penalty decision in last month’s Bundesliga defeat at Cologne as ‘a joke’.
The DFB has taken a dim view of the 49-year-old’s comments about referee Deniz Aytekin, who awarded a penalty in the 79th minute which sealed Hamburg’s 2-1 loss in late August.
After Hamburg defender Emir Spahic got the slightest of touches on Cologne striker Anthony Modeste as he stumbled on the ball, Aytekin awarded a penalty and sent off Spahic, who then served a mandatory one-match suspension.
Modeste slotted home the resulting spot-kick, which enraged Hamburg coach Labbadia, while even Cologne boss Peter Stoeger said “from 50 metres away, I wouldn’t have given the penalty”.
“I have to say the penalty was a joke,” fumed Labbadia at the time. “Anthony Modeste stumbled over the ball, but the DFB will probably suspend Emir Spahic, because they have to make some sense of the red card decision.”
Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2015
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