Tobias Stieler is a FIFA referee.

In his office, he is considered one of the best referees in the ranks of the German Football Association.

This can no longer apply to the job as a video assistant since Wednesday evening at the latest.

Stieler was sitting in the Cologne basement when Matthias Jöllenbeck whistled a penalty in the tenth minute of the game between FC Augsburg and FSV Mainz 05, which was not.

Jöllenbeck had noticed a foul by Mainz goalkeeper Zentner on Florian Niederlechner, which from his point of view and perspective was fine.

And Stieler did: nothing.

He listened to his colleague's assessment and left it at that.

Just as if the power went out at his workplace around 5:40 p.m. and prevented him from watching the scene again.

Because after a look at the television he should have realized what Jöllenbeck realized during the half-time break, as he later said: Between his perception and reality there were "two worlds".

Because Zentner made a stick mistake after a back pass, and he came too late in the fight for the ball that had bounced too far.

But: Niederlechner played the ball with a long leg without making contact with the keeper.

Only after he fell at Zentner's feet did he touch him.

a foul?

Ridiculous.

Allowing the penalty kick to be taken and not even advising Jöllenbeck to look at the monitor was close to a scandal.

After the final whistle, the referee held back criticism of Stieler and "ultimately blamed" the mistake.

The sentence "I would have wished that I was corrected" admittedly left little room for interpretation.

Of course, this scene was the main theme after the end of the game.

Eventually, Jeffrey Gouweleeuw converted the penalty and set the game in motion for the time being.

By the way: a direction from which the relegation rivals of Augsburg, who won 2-1, probably suffer even more than Mainz.

“What are Bielefeld, Stuttgart and Hertha thinking now?” asked Bo Svensson.

The bewilderment was already written all over the face of the 05 coach during the game, nevertheless, surprisingly, he refrained from venting his anger loudly.

Afterwards, he explicitly did not address his criticism to Jöllenbeck.

"It's not his fault," Svensson said.

It was not the first time that Cologne had made such wrong decisions.

"We've benefited from that too," he said, probably having in mind Alexander Hack's goal in Freiburg, which had been checked for handball but not for offside.

“What are they doing there?” asked Svensson, “do they get paid for it?

You have to evaluate two scenes” – the second was a handball by Augsburg’s André Hahn, which rightly cost him the supposed 2-0 – “and then you’re so wrong.”

The video referees, summed up the Dane, “make far too many crucial mistakes.

And today was such a blatant mistake when you get the chance to see the scene an infinite number of times.

That is game-changing.”

Robin Zentner also accused his former club colleague Niederlechner of "an unsportsmanlike action", which he in turn wanted nothing to do with.

"It wasn't a swallow," asserted the Augsburg striker that he felt a contact.

In the heat of the battle, he was apparently unable to pinpoint the time of contact.

It can happen.

However, it was original that his captain thought he was capable of a little more insidiousness: "Flo did it cleverly," said Gouweleeuw.

"And if the referee whistles, it's a penalty." FCA manager Stefan Reuter could even imagine "that there was a scene in the Cologne basement in which Zentner played a foul" - but it would have a working power supply for that also requires a cutter who cuts the images to size in next to no time.

With all this, the Mainzers didn't forget to assess their own performance self-critically.

They weren't good in the first 35 minutes, the coach noted, "and we didn't defend the set-pieces well".

Ruben Vargas made it 2-1 just two minutes after Silvan Widmer's equaliser.

Florian Niederlechner also admitted: "If you see the action, it's not a penalty." What else should he have said?