German club hits out at rivals: was that football or just manipulation? | OneFootball

Sometimes, football writes stories that would be too wild even for Hollywood - and sometimes this even happens in the over-50s league in Berlin. Suddenly, there's an accusation in the league for footballers over 50 that a game has been rigged. Excuse me!?

As Union Berlin told 'rbb24', an objection was lodged against the result of a game by Hertha BSC. More precisely, against a game that was only of importance to the opponent - namely S.D. Croatia Berlin. The reason for the objection: Union's narrow relegation to the state league and a completely crazy game progression at Croatia against Hertha.

Bizarre flood of goals in record time

Union itself had won 4:1 against Berolina Mitte on the last match day and was thus temporarily above the line - survival in the league seemed assured. But then came the game Croatia against Hertha. Hertha was already safely in second place, so had nothing more to win or lose. Croatia, on the other hand, needed a win with at least six goals difference to overtake Union in the table.

And what happened? In the second half, a whopping eight goals were scored for Croatia - in just 15 minutes! Three of them were scored in extra time. Final score: 12:6. And thus exactly what Croatia needed to overtake Union in the table. In an over-50s game, mind you, which only lasts 60 minutes.

"Shameful" - but no proof

Hertha's coach Jürgen Marquardt showed self-criticism towards Bild: "The result is shameful," he said, but vehemently rejected all accusations of manipulation. And indeed, there was even an official game observer from the Berlin Football Association on site. He, in turn, told 'rbb24' that he "noticed nothing unusual" - the Croatia players were simply fitter, Hertha "ran out of steam".

Union Berlin apparently sees it differently - and suspects that not everything went by the book here. The club has therefore formally lodged an objection. Whether the sports court will investigate the suspicion of manipulation and ultimately even annul or reschedule the game is still open. The only thing that is clear is that the whole story is so bizarre that one could almost think it was made up.

But no - this is Berlin's over-50s football in the year 2025.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Maja Hitij - 2025 Getty Images