The memories of April 1st, 2011 came back quickly.

It's been almost eleven years since a Bundesliga game was last canceled.

The images, which no one wants to see, were terrifyingly similar.

At the time, it was assistant referee Thorsten Schiffner who grabbed his head in the FC St. Pauli stadium and signaled that a cup that had been thrown from the stands had hit him.

Referee Deniz Aytekin ended the game prematurely after 86 minutes with a score of 2:0 for Schalke 04.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

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On March 18, 2022, only 68 minutes had been played when assistant Christian Gittelmann suddenly knelt on the sidelines and grabbed the back of his head.

Referee Benjamin Cortus interrupted the game and went to his colleague.

He signaled with a thumbs up that he was okay.

But nothing was okay on Friday evening in VfL Bochum's game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Gittelmann was also hit by a cup.

Cortus decided that everyone goes to the booths.

Twenty minutes later, only Gladbach came back to thank their fans.

Like eleven years ago, the continuation of the game was unthinkable.

Cortus later spoke about the decision.

"In the event of a physical attack on a game official, in this case the assistant referee, there is simply no alternative to stopping the game," he said on DAZN.

"A filled drink cup was thrown from the spectator area at the assistant referee." He was clearly hit in the head.

"He was dazed, has been taken to the hospital and is being examined accordingly."

Florian Heft, Cortus' second assistant, accompanied Gittelmann.

Police are looking for perpetrators

It is the eighth game abandoned in the history of the Bundesliga since 1963 (see box at the end of the text).

Once a broken goalpost was to blame, four times the weather, now for the third time an incident with spectators.

In 2011, when the cup was thrown in Hamburg, the game was scored for Schalke under similar circumstances;

That's probably how it should be in this case, too, since the cup came from a tribune area that is mainly occupied by Bochumers.

"Of course it can be assumed that the game will be scored against us," said co-trainer Markus Gellhaus, who represented head coach Thomas Reis, who was suffering from Corona.

The sports court of the German Football Association will decide.

Now the police are looking for the perpetrator.

The evaluation of the images is still ongoing, and VfL will actively support the police in their investigations, the club said on Saturday night.

Among other things, we reserve the right to make claims for damages.

Because we assume that VfL will be punished by the association," the statement said.

In front of 25,000 spectators in the Ruhr Stadium, the Gladbach strikers had scored the goals before the demolition.

Alassane Pléa scored in the 55th minute, Breel Embolo followed up in the 61st.

But that quickly faded into the background.