ETB SW Essen was the only Oberliga team to advance to the final day of the Essen Indoor City Championship. What could have been a wonderful success was overshadowed by an altercation.
On January 18, the final day of the Essen Indoor City Championships, two groups competed for the title. ETB SW Essen was the only Oberliga team still in the running and led the so-called “Group of Death” alongside three Landesliga teams—including last year’s champion, DJK SF Katernberg.
In the head-to-head match against the defending champion, the score remained 0–0 for a long time, and this score would not change until the game was called off. After about 13 minutes, the match suddenly spiraled out of control when a dispute broke out between players from Katernberg and Schwarz-Weiß. The trigger was apparently an elbow strike by a player from the regional league team, which the referee had not seen.
This led to loud protests from ETB players and, in particular, from goalkeeper coach Kai Heutger, who was ultimately shown a red card. The situation escalated to such an extent that the referee felt compelled to call off the game. While the tournament was still underway, a heated discussion broke out at the tournament office between ETB officials and the referee regarding the legality of this decision.
The tournament organizers justified the abandonment of the match and the subsequent 2–0 result in favor of Katernberg as follows: “The referee felt threatened and insulted by an ETB official during the match. As a result, he called off the game. To ensure the tournament could continue, it was decided that the party at fault would receive no points and the aggrieved party would be awarded the points. Whether the game had to be called off is ultimately at the referee’s discretion.”
Sascha Hense, coach of DJK SF Katernberg, who was standing on the other side of the field with most of his team, did not view the chaotic scenes as his team’s fault: “There was indeed a foul on our part, but everything else happened on the ETB side. We had nothing to do with it. The referee called off the game, and we have to accept that. We can’t judge exactly what happened or what was said—you’d have to ask the ETB.”
The verbal outburst by ETB goalkeeper coach Kai Heutger was apparently the decisive factor in the game’s turbulent course. His coach, Björn Matzel, also acknowledged this: “Our goalkeeper coach had a minor dispute with the referee. That led to a red card. But I also have to say: If we were to call off every game just because a red card is shown, we wouldn’t be able to finish a single amateur game in the second half of the season. He didn’t threaten anyone, and we certainly didn’t.”
Matzel went on to explain: “The only frustrating thing is that officials from the opposing team went to the tournament organizers and demanded the game be called off. In the spirit of sportsmanship and fair play, they could have said the match should be played to the end. But okay—they probably were happy to take advantage of the situation to secure their spot in the final.”
Although the ETB filed a protest against the match result, it was quickly rejected by the tournament organizers. As a result, the Oberliga team was left with only the third-place match against the Landesliga team SF Niederwenigern. They won that match 1–0—a small consolation for the Oberliga team.