Arsenal fans – or indeed, supporters of [insert team you support here] – may feel aggrieved at recent refereeing decisions, but at least you haven’t had to play against 12 men.
That’s unless you’re a supporter of Dutch side Heerenveen, who were on the wrong end of one of football’s most basic rules being flagrantly breached during their top-flight match against Fortuna Sittard at the weekend.
Visitors Fortuna made a late double substitution with Heerenveen – now managed by legendary former Dutch striker Robin van Persie – 2-1 up. But only one of the players getting replaced actually left the field. The match resumed, the 12 men of Fortuna won a throw-in and from that, albeit after the error was spotted and rectified, a corner which brought their equaliser, and the match ended as a draw.
Referee Erwin Blank certainly drew a blank when it came to counting how many footballers were on the field – and the fallout could be substantial, with Van Persie calling for the goal to be ruled out and his team awarded the win. The KNVB (the Netherlands’ football federation) is even asking the International Football Association Board (IFAB — the organisation that sets global football’s laws) for advice on what it should do about it.
Here’s how events unfolded at the Abe Lenstra stadium on Saturday night…
With just over two minutes of the 90 left and chasing an equaliser, Fortuna coach Danny Buijs makes a double substitution. On come Owen Johnson (No 30) and Darijo Grujcic (No 5). There are two Fortuna players (in between Johnson and Grujcic’s heads in the screengrab below) jogging towards the touchline as if they are the ones being replaced. So far, so normal.
Edouard Michut (No 20) is the first player off, but as he does so there’s some loud shouting from the Fortuna bench which grabs his attention.
Ryan Fosso (No 80) does leave the field and heads for a place on the visitors’ bench. But Michut is turned around and sent back into the fray by a member of the Fortuna backroom staff.
Play then restarts, with a goal kick for Fortuna. And, well, something doesn’t quite look right…
Fortuna have restarted the game with 11 outfield players plus goalkeeper Luuk Koopmans, who is out of shot in our next grab — utilising the rarely-seen 3-4-4 formation…
They now win a throw-in deep inside the Heerenveen half.
Please note the position from which this is initially taken.
Around 22 seconds after Fortuna started playing with 12 men, the error is now spotted and referee Blank blows his whistle.
During that time, Van Persie has understandably been haranguing the fourth official.
If ever a single image said “WTF?”….
Turns out it is Fortuna’s No 8 Jasper Dahlhaus who was supposed to have been substituted in the double change and his number now goes up. Off he trudges, leaving the pitch via the far-side touchline.
Fortuna, now back down to the regulation 11 players — aka, the number of them football teams have used for 150 years — restart play with the previously halted throw-in.
However, notice the position from which it is now taken (a few yards up the line than on the previous attempt). Also, the extra stoppage of play has given Fortuna the time to get more of their (checks notes) 11 players nearer the Heerenveen goal.
Inevitably, because football is football, the throw-in leads to a Fortuna corner, which is taken by one of the recent substitutes, Grujcic…
And from that, Rodrigo Guth plants a header past goalkeeper Mickey van der Hart to equalise.
There are no further goals in seven minutes of added time, so the game finishes as a 2-2 draw. Blimey.
“Fortuna Sittard had 12 men on the field for a minute before that throw-in,” Van Persie stated to media outlet ESPN afterwards. (Yes, he’s exaggerated that slightly but let’s forgive him, he was understandably pretty angry.) “Apparently that is allowed and possible. You can’t imagine that? That is simply allowed?
“Normally I never talk to referees and always let them do the job, but it can’t be that they play with 12 men, that’s unthinkable. So I asked the fourth official. ‘Shouldn’t you do something about that?’.”
When Van Persie was asked what should happen next, he replied: “Reverse that goal. You can’t play with 12 men against 11. I think this is really scandalous.”
While the ghost player Dahlhaus didn’t touch the ball during those 22 erroneous seconds, the fact remains that Fortuna launched an attack with 12 men, from which they won a throw. And then, after Dahlhaus finally left the field, from that throw they won a corner and from that corner they scored.
What next, then? Chalk off the goal? Play the final minute of the 90, plus stoppage time, again? Replay the whole game? Well, the KNVB isn’t too sure yet.
It said in a statement: “This is a very unpleasant and extremely messy situation.
“We have requested the statements about the exact events from the arbitration and the clubs. Based on those statements, we are going to seek advice from the IFAB. After we receive that advice, the professional football league board will take a decision.”
Over to you then, IFAB. The Athletic has contacted the same organisation for comment.
Are there precedents for this that IFAB might call upon when offering advice to the KNVB? Well, yes.
It also happened three years ago in the German Bundesliga, when Bayern Munich had 12 players on the pitch for 17 seconds during a match at Freiburg.
Bayern were 3-1 up at the time in the latter stages of the game (and eventually won 4-1). Kingsley Coman was supposed to come off during a double substitution, but the fourth official showed the wrong number on the board, leading to Julian Nagelsmann, Bayern’s manager at the time, counting players on his fingers.
Freiburg appealed against the result, but the Deutsche Fussball-Bund (DFB — Germany’s football federation) judged the mistake had been made by the match officials, not Bayern. “The DFB sports court has decided Bayern Munich cannot be blamed for the introduction of a non-eligible player,” the DFB said at the time. “It is more down to the mistaken behaviour of the officials that a 12th man was introduced and the game continued.”
And in January 2000, second-tier Tranmere Rovers’ shock FA Cup fourth-round win over top-flight visitors Sunderland was marred by a similar incident. Tranmere, 1-0 up, had defender Clint Hill sent off in second-half stoppage time. Stephen Frail came on for them as a substitute shortly afterwards, however no other Tranmere player left the field, meaning they played on still with 11 men.
The BBC reported at the time: “Initially play continued – but once the officials had noticed that Tranmere still had 11 men on the pitch, the game degenerated into chaos, with both benches embroiled in a fierce row.”
Tranmere’s then manager John Aldridge said: “There was a lot of confusion, but it wasn’t our fault. Andy Parkinson should have come off, but the fourth official showed Clint Hill’s number instead.”
Sunderland counterpart Peter Reid wasn’t happy, saying: “It was like Billy Smart’s Circus out there. I don’t like talking about officials instead of football but someone has made a major error.”
However, Sunderland rather sportingly chose not to lodge an official complaint with the FA, which 48 hours later stated that Tranmere had not “knowingly and deliberately distorted the outcome of the game” and ruled the tie did not have to be replayed.
The major difference with what happened in Heerenveen on Saturday is that the scoreline and the eventual result changed so shortly after the period where Fortuna played with 12 men, meaning that, whoever was at fault, the KNVB has a huge decision to make.
No wonder they’re seeking advice.
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