Bayer Leverkusen call for ‘penalty' over ‘unwatered' pitch in Arminia Bielefeld cup shock

New York Times

02-04-2025

Bayer Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro urged the German Football Association (DFB) to 'impose a penalty' on Arminia Bielefeld for not watering their pitch as the Bundesliga champions lost 2-1 to the third division side in the DFB-Pokal.
Despite taking the lead through Jonathan Tah, Leverkusen lost to goals by Marius Worl and Maximilian Grosser, in one of the biggest shocks the competition has seen in recent years.
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Free flowing football is typically easier to play on a wet pitch, as it allows the ball to be passed and moved at greater speed. Leverkusen, who won the Bundesliga and Pokal double last season, are one of the most dangerous attacking sides in Germany, with Xabi Alonso's team favouring such a style of play. However, they were unable to enact it at the SchucoArena where the surface was noticeably worn and dry.
'I was annoyed before the game that the pitch had not been watered,' Carro said. 'I must speak to (Andreas) Rettig (DFB Managing Director for Sport) about that.'
'It was a collective failure,' Carro added, referring to a poor Leverkusen performance.
'The expectation was that we would deliver our best performance today, but we didn't deliver. Still, it annoys me that the pitch wasn't watered. That's a regulatory issue. The DFB should impose a penalty. That doesn't work. That is not acceptable.'
Carro later congratulated Bielefeld, who sit fourth in the 3.Liga and who have beaten four Bundesliga sides — Union Berlin, Freiburg, Werder Bremen and now Leverkusen — to take their place in next month's final at the Olympiastadion.
'They deserved to win,' Carro conceded.
Alonso was magnanimous in defeat, saying in his post-match press conference that: 'Everyone is disappointed, but I have to congratulate Arminia Bielefeld; they played better. We are disappointed, but that's football.'
Helden! Legenden!
#dfbpokal
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— DSC Arminia Bielefeld (@arminia.de) 1 April 2025 at 22:43
Contacted by The Athletic on Wednesday, a Leverkusen spokesperson said that Carro was in no way using the pitch to explain the loss, adding that he was expressing concerns he felt before the game began.
After the game, Michael Mutzel, Bielefeld's sporting director, was asked whether the pitch had been prepared in line with tournament regulations.
He was definitive, suggesting that the club, who will now play in the final for the first time in their history, were just following their normal routine.
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'We talked to the referee about it before the game. If the pitch has been watered in the morning, then it doesn't need to be watered again (before the match). Watering on the day is enough.
'We don't do that (water pitches before kick-off) for our league matches. So, why should we do that today? We would be at a disadvantage if we watered the pitch.'
Bielefeld's head coach, Michel Kniat — who, at 39, has never managed beyond 3.Liga level — was also asked about the dry pitch.
'Those are our rules here,' he told journalists after the game.
'We would also have liked one more day off,' he said, mischievously referring to the fact that Leverkusen had an extra 24 hours to prepare, having played their last league game, against Bochum, on Friday night. Bielefeld drew 2-2 with Hannover's II team on Saturday afternoon.
The DFB did not respond to The Athletic's request for comment, but regulations state that a pitch used for Pokal games must be watered on the day of the game, but not precisely when.
The competition — which is comprised of all 34 teams from the top two divisions, the top-four sides in the 3.Liga, and 21 cup winners from regional associations — often sees big clubs travel to smaller, sometimes amateur clubs.
When Pep Guardiola was Bayern Munich head coach between 2013 and 2016, his side would periodically find their quick, possession-based football stymied by bone-dry pitches during the early rounds.
Guardiola's Bayern won the Pokal in two of his three seasons, so it was rarely successful, but it is an established tactic for levelling the figurative playing field and Leverkusen are not the first Bundesliga team to encounter it. Nor, unless the rules are now tightened, will they be the last.
Arminia Bielefeld will face the winner of Stuttgart and RB Leizpig in Berlin on May 24.