The “Collinas Erben” account, which became known through the analysis of referee decisions, has withdrawn from Twitter due to massive hostilities. “We’re quite used to something like that, football is emotional, you have to endure something like that. But what happened yesterday with over 200 insults, abuse, disparagement – you have to protect yourself,” said co-founder Alex Feuerherdt on Sunday. The Twitter account is now offline.
The situation was sparked by a handball in the Bundesliga game Hertha BSC against Bayer Leverkusen (2: 2), “where we tried to explain why the referee didn’t punish it,” said Feuerherdt: “Unfortunately, that’s often the case : If you offer rule-technical explanations, you are forced to be brief on Twitter, which can then become difficult. Twitter then heats up quickly.”
The denied penalty after a handball by Leverkusen’s Odilon Kossounou also annoyed the Hertha BSC coach. Sandro Schwarz still allowed mitigating circumstances for referee Benjamin Brand, but the video referee got the frustration because he did not intervene.
“To be honest, I have little understanding for what Mr. Jöllenbeck, who also whistled for us in Gladbach, what he then saw and how he assessed the situation,” said Schwarz.
“Collina’s heirs” had judged the controversial scene: “The arm hangs normally, is not far from the body and not under tension, is even held back a bit. No unnatural enlargement of the body surface, no movement towards the ball, no intention.” Then, as was to be expected, a storm of indignation and vile abuse broke out, mainly from the Hertha fan base.
Nevertheless, the dimension was new, said Feuerherdt, who also works as an expert for the Sky TV channel. He left open whether the account will ever be activated again. “Now it’s all on break. We don’t know yet whether it will continue and when.”