No replay for Hertha

The German soccer federation (DFB) ruled on Monday that a match that saw the club Hertha Berlin demoted from the Bundesliga amid chaotic scenes will not be replayed.

It said the costs of the hearing would be paid by the Berlin club.

Soon after, Hertha's lawyer said the capital's only first-division club was appealing the decision.

"That is not a ruling that we can accept, that the sports-interested public has to accept," said lawyer Christoph Schickhardt in Frankfurt.

The next instance is the DFB's federal court.

Hertha drew with second-division club Fortuna Düsseldorf 2-2 on Tuesday after hundreds of Düsseldorf fans invaded the pitch less than two minutes before the end of stoppage time, believing the game had ended.

The Berlin club claims the invasion prevented it from scoring the winning goal, even though match referee Wolfgang Stark recommenced play after a 20-minute interruption for a further 90 seconds.

In its ruling, the DFB panel sided with Fortuna Düsseldorf's argument that the match had been continued in a regular fashion after the disruption.

Düsseldorf secured a 4-3 aggregate win to seal its promotion to the Bundesliga top division after 15 years out in the cold.

Assault charges

Stark, meanwhile, has filed criminal assault charges against a Hertha Berlin player over an incident at the match.

Speaking at a DFB hearing on Friday, Stark said four or five Berlin players tried to storm the referees' changing room after the match, and that he had been hit and verbally abused.

"I have never been treated like this. I was scared after the game and was close to tears," Stark told the DFB panel.

The DFB said it was investigating Hertha players Levan Kobiashvili, Christian Lell, Thomas Kraft and Andre Mijatovic, as well as Fortuna captain Andreas Lambertz, for possible misconduct.

tj, ncy/tm (AP, dpa, SID)