DFB Federal Court reject proposal to postpone cup game

The DFB (German Football Association) Federal Court has rejected FSV’s appeal following the DFB’s Match Operations Committee decision regarding the scheduling of the cup tie against Dresden. The game will take place on Monday, 18th August at 18:00 CEST, as originally scheduled by the DFB, in the Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion in Dresden.

Due to their involvement in the UEFA Conference League play-offs, Mainz 05 will be forced to play five matches in just 14 days. The first leg of the play-off tie will take place three days after the DFB-Pokal game in Dresden, in either Trondheim or Stockholm.

On Tuesday, a report was sent to Mainz entailing the decision made by the DFB and the reasons for it. The committee responsible for handling the club’s complaint “made no errors of judgement” with regards to the scheduling of the match. This was the only issue the Federal Court was responsible for passing judgement on, according to their own statement.

A postponement of the game would have been reasonable according to the Match Operations Committee, however this would not be possible without agreement from Dynamo Dresden. To disrupt the calendar against the will of another club would only be possible providing there were exceptional circumstances that required the change. The committee found no such issues.

Christian Heidel, Head of Sport and Communications at 1. FSV Mainz 05, said: “The decision is very disappointing for us and is a clear disadvantage against the only team representing German football in the Conference League. The heavy workload and lack of recovery time for our players restricts us greatly within the first two match-weeks. In the past, other clubs have been able to get matches postponed, which suggests a clear double standard. The Match Operations Committee certainly haven’t done themselves any favours here. Due to the calendar restrictions for hosting a match in Dresden and our participation in the Conference League, a resolution to this situation should have been drawn up well in advance. This has quite clearly been missed. As a result of this, we felt that the Match Operations Committee had no interest in making decisions in the best interest of the sport. The fact that we had to wait 18 days for the Federal Court to make a decision regarding our appeal at least shows that they strived to find a solution despite the complicated decision-making process.”