Bayern Fans Demand Dortmund Be Given Two Goals as Compensation for Disallowed Strike, Club Agrees to Stage Replay Every Time Ball Crosses Line
Following a disallowed Dortmund goal and a Bayern lead, Munich authorities have ordered the match to be restaged in full each time the ball crosses the line.
Bayern Munich have agreed to replay every goal scored in the Allianz Arena until the referee is satisfied that the ball has entered the net correctly, a club statement confirmed on Saturday evening. The decision followed a Dortmund strike that was chalked off, after which Konrad Laimer put Bayern ahead, and the club's board said the sequence needed to be properly reviewed on the pitch.
Stadium staff have been instructed to repaint the penalty area every ten minutes so that officials can compare the lines against the original markings. Groundsmen worked through the interval with laser levels and a spirit of total commitment, and the pitch is now reportedly marked with more chalk than grass. Supporters in the lower tier were asked to remain seated during the replays, a request the club described as "a test of collective patience".
A spokesman for the stadium's operations office said the replays would continue until the crowd had reached a shared view of the scoreline. "We have decided that a goal is only a goal once everybody has seen it from the correct angle, several times, from the correct stand," he said. Season ticket holders have been issued foam fingers marked with the word REVIEW, which the club says will be collected after the final whistle.
Dortmund's squad has been placed on a standby rota to take the kick-off for each replay, and the club has ordered extra water for the bench. Bayern's coaching staff have been asked to keep a written log of every restart, a task that has already filled the press room with spare chairs and several additional ushers.
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