Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has called for better protection of star players in the wake of Marco Reus' latest injury.
Reus tore his right ankle ligament during Dortmund's 2-2 draw with Paderborn at the weekend as the result of a Marvin Bakalorz challenge and is set to be out until 2015.
Bakalorz, who had previously captained the Dortmund reserve team, was only shown a yellow card by referee Wolfgang Stark, who later admitted he should have sent the midfielder off for the tackle.
Reus had only recently returned to action, having missed the World Cup with an injury to his left ankle before suffering a setback in early September.
In light of this latest injury, Watzke told Bild that referees need to do more to prevent players receiving such rough treatment.
"The attacks on Marco Reus are unbelievable, and it's evident that punishments are too mild," he said. "We need better protection for such outstanding players."
Kicker echoed that sentiment in a comment piece that called for those who cause injuries to be banned until the victim returns to action, and the magazine also awarded Stark the worst possible mark for his performance.
The referee had also ruled out a Kevin Grosskreutz goal that would have seen BVB take a 3-1 lead, but the goal was not awarded as Milos Jojic was adjudged to be offside and Paderborn equalised seconds later.
Refereeing blog Collina's Erben argued that Jojic had distracted Paderborn defender Christian Strohdiek "only to a small extent, which after the reform of the offside rule in 2013 is no longer punishable. Grosskreutz' goal should have therefor been allowed."
Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp said after the match: "I was in the ref's dressing room after the match and told them that it was not offside. The assistant signalled that Milos Jojic was offside, but he was not involved in the situation. You usually talk to each other, but they did not this time, so I told them it could have been sorted out differently."
It is not the first incident in which Stark has cost Dortmund. Collina's Erben recalled a match in 2012 in which the referee showed Marcel Schmelzer a red card and awarded a penalty to Wolfsburg, despite the BVB full-back clearing the ball with his knee and not his hand.
Bild ran a video reaching back even further, showing an incident in 2008 in which he controversially ruled out a BVB goal against Hannover as well as a Mario Gotze red card against Bayer Leverkusen.