The goal that went through a hole — and the result that stood

The header was not close. Stefan Kiessling met a corner at the near post in the 70th minute and sent the ball wide of the post. It struck the outside of the net, passed through a hole in the side netting, and came to rest inside the goal. Referee Dr Felix Brych awarded it. The score became 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen.

The match finished 2-1. Without that goal, it would have finished 1-1. Hoffenheim lost the points.

Brych consulted his assistants before giving the goal. He did not claim certainty. His account afterwards was direct: "I had a slight doubt, but the reaction of the players was clear. Nobody said to me that the ball did not go in. For me, it's not a great situation to have given a goal that didn't exist."

That is the mechanism. Brych had a doubt, looked for information, and found none. No player told him the ball had not crossed the line legitimately. He acted on what he had.

What Kiessling did next is the least-told part of this story. He went to his Facebook page and apologised. "I can fully understand the reactions from many of you and I myself am absolutely gutted," he wrote. Then: "After seeing the replays on television, I can clearly see that it was not a legitimate goal." A scorer publicly disowning his own goal is not a routine thing.

Hoffenheim protested. Sporting director Alexander Rosen called the situation "scandalous." Coach Markus Gisdol expected the protest to succeed, and he explained his reasoning: "It's definitely bitter for us and something like this has already happened once, and that game was replayed so I think we're going to see this game again." Gisdol was not guessing — he was citing a real precedent. An earlier Bundesliga phantom goal had led to a replay. His logic was sound.

The case went to the DFB Sports Court in Frankfurt on 28 October 2013. The hearing lasted about 90 minutes. The protest was rejected and the result stood.

Judge Hans E. Lorenz said the tribunal had been left with "no alternative" but to uphold the original result. The reasoning turned on a distinction that is easy to miss: the DFB did not find that the goal was valid. It found that Brych had broken no rule. A referee who makes a factual error within his authority has not violated the laws of the game. The hole in the net was the cause of the error; it was not the cause of the result standing. The cause was jurisdiction.

Hoffenheim were given a week to appeal further.

The goal landed in a debate about goal-line technology that was already running in Germany — the Bundesliga did not use it at the time while other competitions did. Hoffenheim have since described the goal as the trigger for the technology's adoption. That is the club's framing.