Felix Brych might be demoted to a regional German league or never referee a match again after his horror show in the 2-1 Leverkusen win over Hoffenheim, which included allowing a Stefan Kiessling goal that didn’t even hit the target, disallowing a completely valid Hoffenheim goal and then giving the home side a penalty kick that shouldn’t have been awarded, although it was missed.

However the moment of the match belonged to Kiessling, a striker that doesn’t usually need too much help from referees to score. His header in the 69th minute went slightly wide of the post, but then rolled into the net after already crossing the touchline from a hole in the side. Somehow, with no player actually thinking for one second to make a goal out of this, Byrch saw this as a goal. Maybe he missed the header and saw the ball rolling in the net, and thought it was a goal. Amazingly, no assistant was able to correct him, and one of the biggest mistakes ever by a referee happened to be made in an age of technology the powers that be continue to misuse.

What’s the point of having goal line technology when it’s actually needed once or twice every few months? Referee mistakes of offsides and penalties happen three-four times each weekend, and yet fans and teams have to pay the cost of awful refereeing and federations that turn a blind eye to a huge problem in the game.

There’s no excuse for allowing such a goal, or such an awful performance from a referee, who made too many mistakes in Leverkusen’s favor he clearly tried to correct it, even if it wasn’t warranted for, but the penalty he gave Hoffenheim wasn’t enough. Leverkusen got the win, Kiessling got the goal, but the biggest losers of this encounter were football fans, once again seeing their beloved sport reduced to a mockery.