FrankfurtcTypeface:> Bochum have been declared 2-0 winners of a Bundesliga match at Union Berlin where their goalkeeper Patrick Drewes was hit by a lighter, the sports court of the German Football Federation (DFB) ruled on Thursday. Drewes was hit on the head by a lighter thrown from the Union fan end in stoppage time on December 14 and could not continue. The match was completed after a 25-minute interruption. It finished 1-1 but bottom club Bochum protested the result at the German Football Federation (DFB) because they had no substitutes left when Drewes was hurt and a striker had to go in goal. ‘Decisions off the pitch are always the last resort, but here we are dealing with circumstances that hardly gave us any other option,” sports court chairman Stephan Oberholz said after the hearing. “We did not have the appropriate evidence for play-acting by Mr Drewes or for a conspiracy or a dirty trick.” Drewes told the court he was hit in the “top left front” of the head, speaking of “a hit that I recognised.” He tested negative for concussion in hospital and was back in training five days later. (dpa)
