Controversial decisions: The DFB team lost luck with the referees

For many years, the German national team benefited from referees' decisions in controversial situations. Great successes were also celebrated with the support of the referees. But those days are apparently over. Luck has changed sides.

The Dutch have never forgotten the controversial scene that led to the 1-1 equalizer in the 1974 World Cup final. To this day, tempers flare among our neighbors over the moment when Bernd Hölzenbein fell in the Dutch penalty area. And there's still debate about whether the contact with Willem Jansen was actually as strong as Hölzenbein's subsequent lift-off suggested.

Since those days, our arch-rival in football has adopted a German word into its language: "Schwalbe" (swallow). And this word has since been firmly associated with what the Dutch consider to be a clear miscalculation by English referee Jack Taylor. In Germany, we no longer talk about this game-defining moment at all.

"I probably wouldn't have been awarded the penalty, to be honest about that—even though there was contact," says Rudi Völler today about the decisive moment in the 1990 World Cup final against Argentina. It was the 85th minute of the final when Roberto Sensini allegedly brought down Rudi Völler in the Argentinian penalty area, and referee Edgardo Codesal Méndez of Mexico awarded a penalty to Germany.

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For a long time, Rudi Völler opposed the introduction of VAR, but he has now somewhat come to terms with the assistant off the field. The distinguished international player and current sporting director of the German Football Association (DFB) always had his own situation in the 1990 World Cup final in mind. With a second look, he now suspects, the penalty would probably have been overturned.

Another incident, in which Germany was also directly involved, significantly advanced the discussion about the introduction of video referees. It occurred in the 38th minute of the round of 16 match between Germany and England at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when Frank Lampard, with Germany leading 2-1, steered a ball well over Manuel Neuer's goal line.

But referee Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay was the only one in the stadium and on the TV screens who didn't see that Lampard's shot had landed well over the line. The English can still be quite rightly outraged about this incident today. Ultimately, the match ended clearly 4-1 for the German national team – but Jorge Larrionda's wrong decision had a lasting impact on the game.

"Football is drama!"

Since the unfortunate loss in the 1966 World Cup final against England, when the famous and legendary Wembley goal tipped the game in favor of the home team, the German national team had an international reputation for often being lucky in decisive situations.

And it's true that in the three matches mentioned above, all of which could have gone the other way if the decisions had favored the opponent, this cannot be denied. The so-called "luck of the game," in this case caused by the referees, was often on the side of the German national team for many years. But that has changed. A decisive change.

Günter Netzer said after the 2010 World Cup match against England: "Football doesn't need video evidence. Football is drama!" As we know today, the two can go hand in hand! Ever since the match against France in the Nations League third-place match in Stuttgart, it's been clear: the German national team has lost its luck with the referees!

Lamenting and complaining doesn't help

Slovakian referee Ivan Kružliak reversed his call for Germany twice in crucial situations. Whether he was right or wrong isn't really important. But one thing is clear: The moments had the potential to change the outcome of the game.

And while these situations, and Marc Cucurella's now legendary handball incident in the quarterfinals of the 2024 European Championship against Spain, should rightly not be used as an excuse for the overall sporting performance of the German national team, it must be said that the matches against France this Sunday and against Spain a year ago could have gone the other way – like the matches in favor of the German national team in 1974, 1990, and 2010 – had the referees decided the other way.

But there's no point in whining or complaining. Just as the German national team often and happily benefited from the referees' decisions in close matches in the past, they are now often the ones who suffer the most. As former Bundesliga pro Jürgen Wegmann once so aptly put it: "First we had no luck, and then bad luck came along on top of that." Times will change again for the German national team, too. But one thing will never change – and Günter Netzer is right about that: "Football is drama!" It just varies from game to game which side has the more dramatic ending!