Those who come too late are punished by life, as the well-known German saying goes, but FC Bayern is also being punished by the DFB.
In terms of sport, Munich is currently rushing from victory to victory and is therefore clearly on course for the championship; the lead over second-placed Leverkusen is already an impressive eight points. Of 21 league games, a whopping 17 have been won so far, including the away game at FC St. Pauli’s Millerntor stadium in early November (1-0).
However, the game has now had a backlash for the record champions. Because Bayern caused a delay at the time, they have now been fined 15,000 euros. This was announced by the German Football Association.
Problem Punctuality
As can be seen from a corresponding decision by the DFB sports court, the game in Hamburg kicked off with a delay of exactly 2:07 minutes. The responsibility for this lay with FC Bayern, whose players had simply come out of the dressing room too late, which ultimately led to the equipment check and the subsequent entry being delayed.
It is further stated that “the DFB control committee assumed in summary proceedings that the delay was just under two minutes and attributed it to FC Bayern Munich”, thus accommodating the club. The sports court then also followed this assumption.
It was not the first time that Munich had been late for the kick-off, because only warnings are issued for the first two delays; the fine is only requested for the third late arrival. In the event of a delay of 30 to 120 seconds after two warnings, the penalty is then the aforementioned 15,000 euros – which was also the case here. The maximum fine for such offenses in the Bundesliga is 80,000 euros. That would apply if the eighth infringement was a delay of more than 120 seconds.
