| Report Index--> 2006-07--> All for 20060823 | ||||
| <-Page | <-Team | Wed 23 Aug 2006 AEK Athens 3 Hearts 0 | Team-> | Page-> |
| <-Srce | <-Type | Herald ------ Report | Type-> | Srce-> |
| Valdas Ivanauskas | <-auth | Rob Robertson | auth-> | Iouri Baskakov |
| Brellier Julien | McCann Neil | [J Souza pen 79] ;[N Liberopoulos 82] ;[J Souza 85] | ||
| 32 | of 059 | ----- | E | A |
Romanov's anger over refereeROB ROBERTSON in Athens August 24 2006 VLADIMIR Romanov, the Hearts owner, last night led the club's protests over Russian referee Yuri Baskakov's handling of their controversial Champions League second-leg qualifying match against AEK Athens. The Tynecastle outfit lost 3-0 in the Greek capital but Romanov put the blame for the exit firmly on the shoulders of the Moscow based referee. The Russian controversially sent off Julian Brellier, for two bookable offences. The first was for wearing an earring, a decision which led to furious reaction from Romanov, Hearts manager Valdas Ivanauskas and his players. At the end of the match Ivanauskas had to be physically restrained from approaching the referee in protest and the row continued well after the final whistle. Romanov said: "Football should be about football and not turned into a show because of the referee. AEK might struggle in the group stages of the competition but our team gave a tremendous performance despite having so many injuries and illnesses. "There was not a great player on the field other than Takis Fyssas, my own player, that I would buy for my team. Of course we will be back in the Champions League if we can fight the way we did in Athens. Imagine what we could do when the team is fully fit and the referee does not come from Moscow." It was the Brellier booking which incensed Romanov in particular. The matter was addressed afterwards by a furious Ivanauskas. "The referee came into the dressing room beforehand to check things like boots and rings," said the Hearts coach. "He spoke to Julian and checked that his fingers where he wore his ring had been taped up. He looked him full in the face but did not seem to notice or mind the fact he had earrings in. "On the pitch though he booked him for wearing them. It is a joke. "The whole of Scotland and people in other countries will have seen how well we played today. We played with heart and had chances but the referee's performance I don't want to see. It is unbelievable what he was doing in such an important game. "We had discussions with the ref before the game when he checked everything and he spoke to every player and then he said no problem. Then he booked Julian for wearing an earring." Ivanauskas added: "The game was over" after the Brellier sending off. He claimed the referee's decisions cost his team the game. Lorenzo Ferrer, the AEK Athens manager, made the point that the responsibility for the players wearing jewellery lay with the teams involved. Ferrer said: "It is not my job to see if the players are wearing earrings or rings. Football is my job and I do not want to comment on Hearts. We won 2-1 in Scotland and 3-0 in Greece and we deserved to win." The Hearts players also rounded on the referee's performance. Brellier, although reluctant to talk about the incident, claimed the referee had given him the go-ahead to go on to the pitch wearing his earrings, or at least had not raised any protest about them beforehand. "I do not feel good about this," said the Frenchman. Neil McCann, the second Hearts player to be sent off admitted he had made a heavy challenge but felt it possibly only merited a yellow card. He also revealed that Baskakov had talked to him after his red card and mentioned to him that he would be punished for his challenge. Paul Hartley said of the referee's performance: "It was shocking, as bad as I've ever seen. Everything went their way, we got nothing. "In saying that, though, clearly our first-leg defeat at home, at Murrayfield, ultimately cost us."  Taken from the Herald |
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| <-Page | <-Team | Wed 23 Aug 2006 AEK Athens 3 Hearts 0 | Team-> | Page-> |
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