Beckenbauer and Lehmann fail to see eye to eye over dissent issue

After seeing yellow for protesting over an opponent’s feigned injury in a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt at the weekend, Stuttgart keeper and perennial complainer Jens Lehmann said the standard of refereeing is so bad he may retire from the Bundesliga:

“There was a situation in which a Frankfurt player feigned an injury so we could not launch a counter-attack.”

“The referee said he had to stop play for the injury and then the man stands up and doesn’t even leave the field to be treated. I told the referee, ‘Look! There he goes!’ and he shows me a yellow card - incredible.

“That was so bad that I may as well not bother playing in future. I did not even say anything nasty to the referee.

“Surely there are better ones. I am sorry, but things cannot go on like this. This is sad for the whole of the Bundesliga.”

Jens is clearly outraged for receiving his third yellow card of the season for dissent, but if Franz Beckenbauer had his way, those cards would have been a different colour. The German legend has told Bild that the Bundesliga is turning into a “Motzki-Liga” (a “Whining League”), and folks like Mr Lehmann should be punished:

“This image is an absolute disgrace. We need different, better manners in the league. It simply can’t be that everyone has to get involved in any given incident.

“If I was a referee and someone was having a go at me like that, I would send the person off the pitch immediately. We have to teach all parties concerned a little more respect - with red cards.”

It seems that the Premier League isn’t the only one rife with respect issues: Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp is facing a ban for rushing across the pitch and pushing one of his own players out of the way to criticise a ref for not adding enough injury time, while Werder Bremen’s Claudio Pizarro is being investigated for claiming that a referee was biased.

Perhaps they should also pay attention to The Spoiler’s plan to improve refereeing?