News in brief: Women’s Bundesliga games live on YouTube

There is more live Black and Red football at the weekend from now on. The Bayer 04 Women’s Bundesliga game against MSV Duisburg on Sunday 21 March will be shown live on the Bayer 04 YouTube channel. And there is more good news: A large number of this season’s remaining games for the team led by coach Achim Feifel will be broadcast live. That means fans, who are unable to attend games due to the coronavirus pandemic, can watch Werkself Women’s games at home – and free of charge.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, the German Football Association (DFB) have initiated this campaign and the Bayer 04 Bundesliga Women have joined in (see photo above). The aim of the campaign is to raise the profile of girl’s and women’s football and lay down a marker for equal treatment in this sport. The DFB now has over 1.1 million female members. That means: Every seventh member is female and they represent an important part of the association. Using their social networks, the DFB has encouraged people to join in with the campaign where women, girls and all football fans in Germany show their support for sport on equal terms via their social media channels using the hashtag #Jede7te.

Werkself trio in ‘Team of the Day’

“I’m proud of the players. We didn’t play like a team low on confidence or with fear,” said head coach Peter Bosz after the 1-0 win at Mönchengladbach, the first victory after three league games in succession without a win. The Dutchman was also included in the Bild am Sonntag team of the matchday for his approach to the game and tactical guidance alongside his players Jonathan Tah and Lennart Grill. It was the first nomination for the keeper in only his second game for Bayer 04.

Kicker also included Tah in their team. It is the second time the Germany international has been nominated by the sports journal this season. And our number four was also named in the ARD team of the matchday.

Rangers champions of Scotland

Looking back to the season run-in of 2019/20: Bayer 04 were at home to Rangers on 6 August 2020 in the second leg of the Round of 32 tie in the Europa League. The top Scottish club lost 3-1 in the first leg and 1-0 at the empty BayArena in the return leg and were knocked out of the competition. The team under coach Steven Gerrard have been impressive this season.

Since the match in Leverkusen, the Scots have only lost one game – a 3-2 defeat in the League Cup quarter-final against St. Mirren in the middle of December. None in the league, none in the Europa League. So it is no surprise that Rangers have recently won the 55^th league title in the club’s history with six games to play. The lead of 20 points cannot be made up with six games to go. Ranger’s goal difference of 77 for and 9 against is equally remarkable as is the record of 28 wins from 32 league games. Bayer 04 pass on congratulations for this deserved triumph.

Last year’s Europa League opponents for the Werkself were demoted from the Scottish Premiership to the fourth division after insolvency in 2012. Since then, the arch rivals Celtic, until recently including Jeremie Frimpong, have won the Scottish league title nine times in succession – up to this year.

From 1 July: New handball rule

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) have agreed a new handball rule. As recently announced by IFAB, from 1 July, an accidental handball that leads to a goal or goalscoring opportunity for a teammate will not be treated as an infringement. A handball by the goalscorer will still be penalised.

In future, not every contact of the ball with a hand or arm will automatically be an infringement. Accordingly, handball will only given if the player intentionally plays the ball with his arm or hand or spreads his frame “unnaturally”. The decision will be made by the referee.

The rule changes from 2019, which were intended to give match officials more objective criteria, have been the subject of intense debate since they were introduced. There has been increasing criticism since then.