Overview
- Tobias Stieler admitted after the HSV–Eintracht Frankfurt DFB-Pokal match that replayed images showed he should have awarded a penalty for Robin Koch’s challenge on Zakaria El Ouahdi.
- Two specific errors from the cup tie prompted public outcry: the non-awarded penalty in the 35th minute and a 48th-minute head challenge by Nnamdi Collins, who had already been booked but was not sent off.
- Former referee Manuel Gräfe and media outlets faulted Stieler’s performance and judged his partial post-match admission insufficient to fully address the mistakes.
- Reports from Kicker, relayed by other outlets, say the DFB plans to nominate Stieler for the Bayern–Dortmund Klassiker because Daniel Siebert is unavailable after an injury and Robert Hartmann filled in during Siebert’s injured match.
- Stieler is a FIFA-listed referee scheduled to end his international career next summer and the likely appointment to a fifth Klassiker spotlights wider questions about how the DFB evaluates recent performance when assigning marquee matches.